The French Ville Nouvelle of Tlemcen was laid out from the 1840s on flat ground immediately north of the medina, and is one of the most coherent colonial-era town centres in North Africa. The Place Emir Abdelkader — formerly Place de la Concorde — is the obvious centre, a large arcaded square with the post office, the town hall, and a number of cafes that have been there for a century.
Walk the surrounding streets — Boulevard Colonel Lotfi, Rue de l'Indépendance, Place de la République — for the rest of the picture: solid stone-fronted houses, wrought-iron balconies, and the kind of urbanism that the French planners reproduced from Aix-en-Provence and the south of France. The cafe scene at Place Emir Abdelkader is the place to start your day with a coffee.