Under the palm tree

When we renovated Riyad el Mezouar ten years ago, we planted a palm tree in the courtyard.

A Washingtonia, with only a few palms, it was then growing in a basket and was less than one meter tall. It now reaches the first floor…

For the botanist, Washingtonia is one of the more than 200 genus of palms (Corypheae tribe). It has leaves with a bare petiole terminating in a rounded fan of numerous leaflets. The flowers are in a dense inflorescence, with the fruits maturing into a small blackish-brown drupe with a thin layer of sweet flesh over the single seed.

Originally native to the southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. Washingtonia species are now commonly cultivated across the United States, the Middle East, southern Europe, and of course north Africa, where they have greatly hybridized.

Another illustration of the migration of species…

Yves Saint Laurent et le Maroc

Il ne faut pas manquer la très belle exposition de modèles d’Yves Saint Laurent inspirés par le Maroc qu’organisent actuellement à Marrakech le Jardin Majorelle et la Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent.

On sait qu’Yves Saint Laurent a vécu une véritable histoire d’amour avec le Maroc dont il a toujours revendiqué l’influence sur sa création. Il s’est approprié la djellaba, le jabador, le burnous, le tarbouch…pour créer des silhouettes qui lui sont propres.

Paradoxalement les créations d’Yves Saint Laurent n’avaient jamais été montrées au Maroc. Cette exposition qui présente plus de 40 modèles haute couture provenant de la collection de la Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent se veut un hommage d’Yves Saint Laurent aux habitants de ce pays, au ciel de Marrakech, à ses couleurs et à sa lumière.

Lettre de Marrakech

22 mai 2009

A Marrakech, comment ne pas penser à toi ? Ton souvenir s’accroche partout, ne veut pas quitter la ville qui eut tant d’importance sur ta vie et sur ton métier. C’est là, disais-tu, que tu as découvert la couleur, ton chromatisme. Tu étais ébloui par la tenue des femmes dans la rue, par les caftans verts qui laissent apparaître des doublures safran, par les foulards bordés de franges de jais mais aussi les jacarandas et les melias bleus, les hibiscus rouges, les clivias orange, les nymphéas nacrés. C’est là, j’en tmoigne, que tu as été le plus heureux. Que nous avons été le plus heureux.

Pierre Bergé, Lettres à Yves, NRF Gallimard

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Nouveau système de réservation en ligne pour le Riyad El Mezouar

Un nouveau système de disponibilité et réservation en ligne été mise en place sur le site du Riyad El Mezouar (www.mezouar.com) permettant :

• de connaître en temps réel la disponibilité des chambres en fonction des dates
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When Marrakech was wild: Hideous Kinky

Marrakech gained its major bohemian appeal in 1960’s as the likes of Yves Saint Laurent, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Jean-Paul Getty all came to hang out here.

Hideous Kinky depicts Marrakech at this time, seen through the eyes of a five-year-old little girl who travels in North Africa with her hippie mother and her older sister.

Living in a cheap hotel and making a living out of making hand sewn dolls, the girls explore the city, picking up the language and even passing themselves off as beggars. This is definitely not a conventional vision of Marrakech!

Written in 1992 by Esther Freud, the daughter of painter Lucian Freud and great-grand daughter of Lucian Freud, the novel is full of delicate irony: while the mother immerses herself in the Sufi religion and quests for personal – and sexual – fulfillment, the children begin to rebel, the older sister insists on going to school while the narrator dreams of mashed potato…

The book was translated in French under the title “Marrakech Express” and adapted into a film in 1998.

A walk nearby Riyad el Mezouar: Rahba Kadima

Nearby Riyad el Mezouar, The Rahba Kadima Square (or Place des Epices), is a fascinating, both colourful and fragrant, place.

The centre of the square is filled with ladies wearing djellabahs selling woven palm leaf baskets and bags and crocheted skullcaps.

On the north side of the square is the very popular Café des Epices where you can soak up the atmosphere and watch the world go by. A few shops along from the café are some carpet shops adorned with colourful rugs which make a beautiful visual effect.

But the main interest of the square – which is actually triangle shaped - is its perimeter made up of spice shops. You can find spices used in cooking: coriander, cinnamon, cumin, ginger, turmeric, paprika, saffron, coriander, pepper, aniseed, harissa. You will also find ras-el-hanout which is a blend of various common spices and sometimes nigella, galangal, rosebuds, lavender, ash or rowan berries, mace... Everyone has its own mixture.

Moreover, you will find “useful” things like indigo for dying fabric, sandalwood, stone alum which can be used as an aftershave. The spice shops are like a local pharmacy, they are herbalists but they also sell magic remedies…