Designer Dalliance

The chirping of the little birds in our Courtyard awakened us on Tuesday morning which was bright, but fresh. Today we were heading to the New City area of Gueliz.

A taxi ride through hair raising traffic, dropped us at the gates of the Majorelle Gardens. What a delight greeted us having passed through security! This calm oasis of greenery,executed in an structured yet artistic art deco style, would calm the soul of any visitor. Created by the artist Majorelle in the 30’s he opened it to the public in the late 40’s His creation of what has been become known as Majorelle Blue is to be seen throughout, a bright iridescent blue, it is so complementry to the greens and greys of the Cacti , the Bamboo area, the Water lily pond and the Palmerie. Magnificent! In 1980 Yves St .Laurent and his Partner Pierre Berge, who were now living nearby, bought the Gardens, thus saving the area from being developed by real estate company. After Yves’ death in 2008 Pierre donated the Gardens to their joint Foundation. A magnificent work of creativity and dedication, the Gardens are well worth visiting.

Berge also established a Berber museum within the Gardens, highlighting the contribution and history of this tribe from the Sahara and their part in Morrocan life.

A short walk along a tree lined suburban street , brought us to the Yves St. Laurent Museum . If like me, you are an admirer of YSL, on arriving here, you would have have thought you had died and gone to YSL heaven .

A very modern building with the famous YSL logo greeting us, it was in stark contrast to the Gardens we has just left behind . This Museum, which houses both temporary and permanent exhibitions ,is a retrospective of the creativity of one of the worlds most creative fashion designers .

ST. Laurent discovered Marrakesh in the mid sixties and from then on derived much of his creative designs from the vibrant colours, cultures and contrasts of this exotic city.

High on this sensuality of fashion and design, armed with the credit dards( danger) we went shopping nearby in what we had thought was the French influenced area of GUELIZ. Were we disappointed, Yes! ZARA, H and M, Monsoon were not what we had in mind , so reluctantly, sans shopping we returned to our Riad.

We visited an apothecary/herbalist who managed to convince us to buy so many powders and potions that not only shall we live forever, we will not have a line or a wrinkle!! Do we ever learn!!

On our return to the Riad we dressed up for our dinner reservation in what is reputed to be Marrakesh’ top restaurant, Le Maison Arabe. Travelling by tuk tuk, that struggled, we careered through a maze of dark, damp alleyways and wondered if we were literally being taken for a ride! On a very narrow corner, we met a man with a cart and neither was giving way! However we were also outside an opulent doorway of carved painted ceder wood, adorned with mosaic and yes, it was our restaurant!

We were escorted through a sophisticated Riad, along corridors lit with intricately carved brass lanterns, to an exotic restaurant, set alongside a tiled and beautifully lit pool, with over hanging jasmine trees touching the tables. We enjoyed a wonderful meal and Abdul, our tuk tuk driver was waiting outside to bring us back.

This morning it was rather dull, overcast, with rain promised in the afternoon , so we decided that we would try our new found directional powers and walk to the Maumonia Gardens without the help of our intrepid Noreddine.

While almost been mowed down by traffic, that totally disregards traffic lights, we made it! 17 acres of lush gardens, surrounded by the five star famous hotel known to most visiting celebrities was a joy to behold. Orange groves lay before us in varying degrees of flower. Some trees laden with fruit, while others were only coming into flower. The first avenue held different species of Cacti of varying height and a different and never seen by either of us, large bright red Cacti! (Sorry I have not mastered the pictures yet, next blog I hope! ) We mused on how it could have been grafted or what part of Africa or Asia, it might have come from, until we realised it sat on a metal plate and yes, it was a metal sculpture standing alone amongst the cactus! Did we feel foolish!!

The wind was now getting up a little, but we were sitting in splendour drinking coffee , when our waiter arrived with two red wool braided capes to keep us warm! What customer service! Wow! With that, a chap I had noticed because of his highly designed gear covered in Balenciaga logos, approached us to examine the capes and quiz us !! A designer from France he huffed and he puffed and he put me on his private Instagram where he has 76k followers, quizzed us on cashmere suppliers in Ireland and generally was full of bull sxxx! We reckoned a big but attractive phoney!! What a morning !

We needed the afternoon activities of being pulled, pumelled and massaged in black soap, for two hours in a Hammam in a beautiful Spa! Boy, did we feel relaxed after that.

So time to regroup for our last day tomorrow. More to follow!