Frenchwoman Colette Modiano has traveled through the Holy Land several times since her first visit in 1967. Her book, Turkish Coffee and the Fertile Crescent (London: Michael Joseph, Ltd, 1974;), describes the places she visited, the people she encountered, people’s impressions of her, and her impression of the burgeoning relations among countries in the early 1970s. By four o’clock [on Friday afternoon], the Via Dolorosa was deserted and overlaid with shadows. Women do not sit in cafes, still less alone, and my neighbor’s disapproval bordered on contempt. Unbuttoned and collarless, with a filthy black beret and a barbarous beard, […]
