Malta

MAT07-CIT1
malta-street

Valletta, Malta, March 2007.

Halfway into Europe. The weather was overcast but we got enough of a glimpse of this very religious island (they say Saint Paul lived there for three months) with rustic people reminding me of Basques or even Berbers, other closed communities, cheese and sausages were the specialties, the language too was rough. Well, I don’t know what people didn’t invade the island, very geo-strategically located in the middle of the Mediterranean, the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Arabs, Sicilians, Knights of Malta, Ottomans, French, Brits, the last ones whose influence you can see in the architecture, the buses, the names, the administration.

Influence grecque, romaine, byzantine, arabe, ottomane, française, anglaise, que l’on retrouve dans l’architecture, les us et coutumes, la langue de cette communauté aussi fermée que les Basques ou les Berbères.

MAT07-REL1
malta-church-schoolchildren

Valletta, Malta, March 2007.

Schoolgirls in uniform entering one of the numerous churches of the island. Des écolières en uniforme entrent dans une des nombreuses églises de cette île fort pieuse.