rencontres
encounters
لقـــــاءات
focus I focus I
تركيــــز
the buildings are crumbling but when we know my
grandfather’s 5-dollar-a-night hotel and its
magnificent Italian façade. This is where I feel
comfortable, the central market and the medina. Not
the medina known by the tourists, but all these
narrow streets in Souk el Blat and La Kherba, where
tourists never go. I think this is incredibly beautiful
and oddly, I think these places are the most
protected.
FFL : In this issue, we visit Venice, do you know
this city?
AY : I will go to Venice when I will be pregnant
because it is the town of love and for me having a
child is the realization of love.
FFL : If you could invite anyone in the world to
dinner, who would it be and which restaurant
would you choose?
AY : I would invite Big Bill Broonzy who is a very old
jazzman and we would go to “Uncle bar“ in New
Haven, to eat a burger and drink a beer.
FFL : And for a trip around the world ? 3
destinations and with whom ?
AY : The first destination would be Iceland, then
Japan and Australia. Honestly I wouldn’t bring
anyone along, because these destinations are so
exotic that I refuse to be accompanied, in order to be
forced to challenge myself by meeting new people
from other cultures.
FFL : What does the word “travel“ mean to you ?
AY : When you travel as much as I do without
actually travelling, you tell yourself that you don’t
deserve it because you don’t respect the word travel.
A trip is this incredible dream and I come from a
country where people don’t have the right to travel
because most of the world will refuse them entry. To
me, the opportunity to travel is a privilege that should
be democratized.
FFL : You are alone on an island, what are the
three things you can’t do without ?
AY : If I have internet, I have everything. Otherwise, I
would take music, a lot of music, a book that I like to
read again and again, “Hunger“ by Knut Hamsun, but
I am allowed to take what I want, everything I want ?
So I take three Rothko, the three Rothko from the
Rothko room in the “Phillips Collection“ in
Washington.
La Gazelle 60 I
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FFL : What is your finest memory of travel ?
AY : Kenya. Nature, safaris, it’s fascinating to see so
many animals. I like “natural“ trips. I think that
everyone should have the right to witness migration
because nothing is as beautiful as these thousands
of birds flying above your head.
FFL : What is your worst memory ?
AY : My worst memory of travel is New York where I
was expected to attend a very important meeting, it
was for the UN General Assembly and I caught a
virus, I was actually delirious and I was supposed to
speak in front of the Assembly. I had this feeling of
being alone in the world, a 16-hour flight only to
attend a two-hour meeting, it’s horrible, it took me
some time before I flew again.
Perso
FFL : What do you F