The Muslim Algerian and the pied noir communities were separated by a wide gulf that was at once religious, cultural and economic. Solid friendships could exist between the two but seldom matured into anything more intimate because, says Jacques Soustelle, ethnologist and future governor-general: “the traditional status of the Muslim woman, recluse and veiled, hindered families from getting together, from households entertaining each other.” There was a fundamental divergence of orientations: when the pied noir went on holiday he made for the beach, and instinctively he gazed out over the Mediterranean towards Europe. In contrast, the Arab or Kabyle would head for the cool verdure of the mountains or the desert oases; he looked inland, towards the land-bound heart of Africa.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 151