Two Links for the Old (or Younger) Cairo Hands

I thought I'd leave you for the weekend with a couple of Cairo stories for the old (or young) Cairo hands. If you're not an old Cairo hand, you might find them interesting anyway.

First of all, it seems Felfel is still working at the Cafe Riche, where he started in 1943 at the age of 13. He was already a familiar part of the place by the late 1970s, when I frequented the Riche almost daily, living as I was in wast al-balad. The Riche was closed for years after the 1992 earthquake, but he apparently kept his job, according to this Egypt Today piece. (Speaking of earthquakes, we had one in DC this morning at 5 am. I slept through it till my wife and daughter woke me.)

Secondly, let me point out an article in The National on plans to redevelop downtown Cairo, creating pedestrian-only streets and trying to restore some of Khedive Isma‘il's original vision for the central city.

The plan already has its critics,warning it will make rents too expensive. I'm not sure Cairo can ever be the Paris-on-the-Nile envisioned by Isma‘il and his modern counterparts, so I'll believe it when I see it, but the old, European quarters of the city have always had a certain charm and it would be nice to see it preserved.