“Les Jardins” dorm is set in front of “Cité Mahrajan”’s BIAT bank on the route from Tunis to Manzah stadium. And it is a part of INAT university. It is in a calm neighborhood in a fantastic location. It is near ‘Jeunesse” metro station ( around 5min walk) and “Cité olympique” station (10-15 min walk). The university is 35min away on foot, and you can take a taxi costing around 2dt from the dorm to the gates of the university.
Unlike many dorms, most rooms here are for individuals. The couple of two persons rooms are reserved for the older student from INAT and sometimes INSAT. There are three floors of these rooms.
When you first enter your room, you will face a window that you can use to hang your laundry. You will find on one side of the room a cupboard, and it is separated from the door by a little space that is pretty useful. On the other side, you will find your bed. You will have one or two tables and a chair for each table.
You might find some modifications made by previous residents. They range from posters hanging on the wall to shelves and clotheslines in that space between the door and the closet. I recommend you put a clothesline in that space and a mosquito net for the window if you didn’t find any.
The dorm has a kitchen on the first floor that has two stoves and a sink. One the end of each hallway there is a WC &nd on the first floor there are two 3-showers rooms. Also, there is a TV room with no working TV, but at least there is a ping pong table and two big tables where you can eat with your friends what you have cooked.
Concerning hygiene, every two days, the dorm gets cleaned except for weekends. There is a trash basket in each room and a big trash bin or two on each floor even tho they get full on the weekend.
Now, let's talk about dorm life. The dorm experience will never be complete without friends. So, make sure to get to know people there, especially on your first day. Trust me! It is easy to start convos with other people who are looking for a company like you. The dorm is surrounded by a lot of trees since it is located within INAT university, so walks there are great plus there are benches around the campus. Also, I recommend you go in groups to university, since it is safer and cheaper. Also, be careful not to make any noise since your neighbors might get irritated.
Moving on to one of the topics that concern the new students the most, we are going to talk about the restaurant. Since this is the same restaurant for both the dorm and university, it serves lunch and dinner. You get one meal for one 0.2TND ticket. You buy these tickets from the entry of the restaurant, usually in 1 TND packs containing five tickets.
Each meal contains an entry (salad, soup, rice), and main course, a source of protein (meat, chicken) or Brik/Barkett…, and a desert (yogurt, fruit, cake). If the main course is eaten with a fork/spoon (couscous, pasta) the next meal’s main course will be soup.
The meals are served from Monday to Saturday morning. On Saturday, you can get a cold meal (two yogurts, cake, jam, bread) for one ticket.
You can use two tickets at a time to get double the desert and the protein source, except when it is Ramadan or a special event. You can get more of the salad and the main course as much as you want. Also, you can bring extra bread from the restaurant to your room if you ask politely.
Concerning Ramadan, the restaurant serves dinner for all days until Ramadan 27th. During Covid, we were asked to bring containers for food from 17:30 to 18:30. You cannot get a double meal during Ramadan since the restaurant will be crowded even by residents in the girls' Manzah dorm. But you might be as lucky as us last Ramadan having an association give all people coke, cake, and water when leaving the restaurant.
The campus got a lot of cool resources. There is a football playfield by the side of the dorm. Also, there is a lot of beautiful scenery and a lot of green spaces. There are many benches across the whole place, especially in areas where there is free wifi. Also, there is a basketball field in front of the university cafeteria. The view from the cafeteria is great. It serves coffee, fresh croissant early in the morning (around 6 am), and even sandwiches. Also, there are games like Table football.
There is a lot of banks in your area plus two near post offices “Cité Mourouj” post office and the “Manzah 1” post office. Also, there is an MG nearby and a little library and a supermarket. Going near Manzah Stadium, you will be able to find Cafés and restaurants.