Alger La Blanche

The port of Algiers

Culturissima has visited Algeria twice in 2009 to carry out some research on behalf of a British cultural tour operator and can confirm that the Roman sites of Timgad, Tipasa and Tiddis are as beautiful and as captivating as ever… and that the capital Algiers remains one of the Mediterranean's most alluring cities, its superb French architecture an entirely unexpected delight for most European visitors (who are still avoiding Algeria en masse!). 

Caryatids in central Algiers

I was fortunate enough to take a whole-day excursion through some of Algeria’s most breath-taking scenery to the oasis town of Biskra, situated on the northern fringes of the Sahara. My journey south took me through the Aurès Mountains and the gorge of Tighanimine to Biskra, gateway to the desert, where a local family invited me to eat in their private palm grove. En route I visited the abandoned canyon village of Rhoufi and passed through El Kantara, once known as Calceus Herculis (Hercules' Boot).

I’m now back on the coast, at the Hotel Safir, once the favoured haunt of Charlie Chaplin, of all people, overlooking the Bay of Algiers. It’s comforting to be back here - it’s familiar territory to me - but, as I’ve said elsewhere, everyone should have the chance to step foot in the Sahara at least once during their lives.

The mark of Baron Haussmann is alive and well in Algiers

The Bay of Algiers

I lived in Algeria for two years as a child and it is a country I love deeply: the historical sites are superb - Tiddis, with its remote hill-top setting, is perhaps my favourite - and the Algerians I have met have shown nothing but warmth, friendship, respect and hospitality. If you've enjoyed travelling in the Maghreb or Libya, then you are likely to find Algeria an even more rewarding (and even more adventurous!) destination.

Over the coming weeks I hope I’ll be able to write a little more about some of the towns I’ve visited and the people I met.

I am the great lion of the day

Part of Culturissma's monthly schedule is to brief our clients on up-coming art exhibitions so that they can steal a march on their rivals. We've just got wind of a new offering at London's Tate Britain, Turner and the Masters, which will be the first ever exhibition to examine the influence of the Old Masters on J M W Turner.  As well as displaying some of Turner's most scintillating canvases, Turner and the Masters will showcase around 100 works by Canaletto, Poussin, Rubens, Rembrandt and Constable.

Born in 1775, Turner - the London-born son of a barber - was always confident of his abilities, once proclaiming: "I am the real lion. I am the great lion of the day". The Tate exhibition will investigate the complexity of Turner's obsession with the Old Masters as he strove first to imitate, then rival and finally surpass the style of Rubens, Rembrandt and Claude Lorrain.  Acts of homage will hang alongside sophisticated forms of art criticism in an exhibition that is likely to re-establish Turner's reputation as the greatest painter of landscape in the European tradition.