Our time in Marrakech is running out, or maybe our ability to withstand the medina/kasbah pressure is failing, or maybe the extremely hot, dry, bleached weather has broken us, regardless, its time for us to squeeze a few last things in and get moving again. We chatted with the owner of https://www.facebook.com/Zwinzwincafemarrakech/, a lovely and super helpful woman from France and she shared with us a good rug merchant in the souks and we sought him out after our poor experience in the tanneries. We found three rugs that we really liked, unfortunately we could not come to a price– below you can see the runner. We also found a few small parts of the souk closed on Friday, which is the Muslim holy day (Muslim – Friday, Jewish-Saturday, Christian-Sunday, Buddhist-???), so here is an empty square.
A trip to the Jardin Majorelle was next. It was originally created by Jacques Majorelle, an artist. In 1980, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé bought and restored the gardens to save them from being bulldozed for development. They are a lovely oasis in the middle of the new town. Below are some photos of New Year cards that Yves and Pierre regularly sent out and the gardens. There is also a small Berber museum on the property, but alas they didn’t allow photographs for some odd reason. A good place to visit. Yves Saint Laurent died in 2009 and his ashes were spread in this garden.
A last trip through the square…
“Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat”
The Beatles
No Moroccan adventure would be complete without eating couscous & tangine – CHECK, without eating various parts of a sheep/lamb – CHECK, without staying in a Riad- CHECK. without being hounded by shop keepers in the souks – CHECK, CHECK, CHECK, without rug shopping – CHECK, without riding a camel in the desert with a mint tea break – CHECK and here are the snaps to prove it:
Leaving Marrakech a tiny bit humbler, wiser, and appreciative for this experience.
