Bharaket Essahel-a small crossroads town-local life

Bharaket Essahel is a small crossroads town just up from Yasmine Hammamet and Hammamet.
It is a busy, bustling place, alive from dawn until dusk.

Many people local to the area live here as it is a little cheaper to rent accommodation and travel to work into the resorts each day.

This is the place where local transportation picks up and sets down passengers and goods on the way to Tunis capital and to other towns in the region. Most people travel in what is known as a 'louage'-a people carrier size vehicle -like a local bus-all people paying a set fee to whichever place they travel to along the route. They are usually quite tightly packed with people, but not unpleasantly so.
I have found people in these to be very pleasant and in most cases, helpfull. Everyone greets one another in unison (unless in a grumpy mood) on entering the louage-'asleema'(hello) or asalama lakum. As French is widely spoken in Tunisia it is common to hear 'Ca Va' also being used in this way.

Many tour operator transfers also pass through here on the way to the main motorway from the Hammamet area up to Tunis or down towards the south of the country.

At the moment it has a thriving new business area around the roundabout or rotunda as it is known.
There is a large petrol station on one side, cafes and food shops on the other aimed at the local people, a large second hand clothing store, Ajittari bank and a small market, which has materialised post revolution due to lack of jobs and opportunities to make money in the area.
Further up, past the market(souk) is an endless row of shops and cafes, selling just about everything from traditional clothing to sofas, beds and Cd's.
The souk offers all kinds of clothing, which is new, fruit and vegetables, haberdashery, shoes and mobile phones.
I have sat her for many hours with friends working in the souk and seen real life going on all around me.
The laughs and jokes, local police, families, people travelling to and from different towns, cafes and chicha, livestock transportation and old Berber ladies begging for money in traditional costumes-it all happens here!