Brief but moving ceremony on the steps of the French Consulate General in Tangier, with newly-arrived Consul General Pierre Thénard presiding. A reading of President Nicolas Sarkozy's Armistice Day message. A vin d'honneur. Very much like in every town and village in France, the monument aux morts has lots and lots of names of the … Read more 11-11-11 In Tangier: Morts Pour la France
L'Escadrille Chérifienne Recently Moroccan satellite TV audiences tuned in to ARTE, the Franco-German cultural channel, to see Daniel Cling's excellent new documentary, Abdelkrim et la Guerre du Rif. For many, it was the first time footage on this war from Morocco's colonial past was seen on TV. The war was important in many ways – … Read more Lafayette, We Are Here In Morocco’s Rif
Don't worry if you can't make out the cartoon captions. They're in Spanish anyway. Last night the Tangier Instituto Cervantes opened "Casablanca," an exhibit of sometimes whimsical pop art inspired by the film. The point of this post is not creative cartoonists, but the parallels between the Casablanca depicted in the film (celebrating its … Read more When Tangier Was Casablanca: Rick’s Café & Dean’s Bar
Our post on J. Rives Childs, Chargé d'Affaires at the Tangier American Legation during World War II, has elicited a fascinating comment from a friend of his. We repeat David Meyer's letter below to give it proper attention, as Mr. Meyer begins to answer one of the questions we raised in January: does J. Rives … Read more Rives Childs: Remembering the Righteous on Yom Kippur
First train arrives in Tangier's Charf Station, 1920s Print from Donald Angus Collection of glass negatives, No. 86 TALIM library, Tangier American Legation Yesterday's ceremony to mark the start of construction of Africa's newest TGV or high speed train line brought French President Nicolas Sarkozy and King Mohammed VI to Tangier. As a relatively frequent … Read more Tangier Inaugurations: From Steam Train to TGV
Louis Armstrong and Lillian Boutté. For a long time, they were New Orleans' only "Musical Ambassadors," though some other jazz greats have since joined their ranks. So Tangier was honored to have Lillian Boutté & The Gigolos for the latest edition of Tanjazz, an annual festival that attracts a wide audience of Tanjawis and visitors … Read more Tanjazz and New Orleans’ Musical Ambassador
(click on picture to enlarge) Among all the documents that are squirelled away in odd corners of the Legation's research library or administrative files, every so often an item of more than passing interest surfaces. What we're looking at here is the unmistakable pink of the State Department "airgram" announcing in June 1956 that the … Read more Legation, Consulate, Diplomatic Agency: Tangier’s American Presence
The leather bound volumes of the Tangier Gazette are a favorite among researchers who spend time at the Legation library. Part of it is the look and feel of history in its original form. And there's all the period detail that gives context to the stories of events in Tangier and beyond. In the 1900 … Read more The Joys of the Tangier Gazette
The archives of the American Legation at Tangier record that 74 years ago the Sultan of Morocco, disturbed at the predatory methods of certain European Powers who looked covetously in the direction of Morocco and particularly Tangier, expressed the desire to turn over his entire empire as a protectorate to the United States. We were … Read more History Tantalizingly Within Reach
"My family arrived in Tangier in June 1947 and thanks to your blog, seven years worth of memories have come flooding back. Until we were able to get a space heater, the humidity and/or rain caused everything to mold–leatherbound books, shoes, even some cake flour sent by a relative in the U.S. We lived with erratic electric service and water turned … Read more TALIMblog – The Kindness of Readers
