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This paper offers an interpretation of a new globalised public space located on the waterfront of a recently restored lagoon, which has become, in the space of just a few years, an ideal place for observing the changes in the societal system of Tunisia's capital city. Interactions between citydwellers offer an opportunity to address practices and representations as a whole. This cross-cutting approach makes it possible to objectivise a double social reality: on the one hand, the lakeside appears to be a genuinely shared place, a concentrate of urbanity based on a set of values transgressing the normative system of customary public spaces of proximity, recognition and habits. On the other hand, the lakeside reveals new practices, which reflect a contemporary maritimity and are helping redefine the relationship between the residents of Tunis and their lagoon.