IT'S A MAN'S WORLD

I was excited and had been for some time. Jerome, Laurent and I were off to Morocco, first to Assilah then to Tangiers. A strange coincidence. A very good friend Craig, had just returned to France after years spent in Morocco and notably Assilah and Tangers. We were armed with recommendations (mainly eating I might add). I have been to Morocco before so was more or less aware of what we would be confronted with culture wise. The operative word was less.

1.  The first time was with my daughter Nicky who was not yet in her teens. A Berber offered me 90 dromedary for her but I was not too sure if they would fit on my Mother's balcony. She was an angel for the rest of the trip.
2. I was with a friend for a short week of Thalasso....
3. The third time I was with my Mother in Marrakech. The guide couldn't understand why I didn't want to spend the night with him. He was very cold when picking us up the following morning. We decided we could do without a guide. 
4. I was with the Borgys. Two women and one man . Polygamy is acceptable so we ladies barely got a glance.

  I had definitely forgotten how cold and humid these countries could be in the winter months. We were hoping for sunshine and warmth. Fortunately there was no rain until the final day and then we were ready to come home.

Assilah is just below Tangier

 Assilah is without any doubt a beautiful Moroccan town. It’s on the Atlantic coast about 35 kilometers south of Tangier. On a beach of course.

Looking down from the Medina

Looking out at the sea

 The town is probably atypical I would think. Clean, welcoming and very colorful. The winding streets have street art which seems to be renewed regularly as there were political paintings dating from 2013. Streets with blue walls and doors, brightly painted windows and imaginative paintings to be enjoyed by one and all. Another way of bringing art to the people.....

After !!

Before !!

But what did UH 07 mean? We saw it everywhere

Shoe shopping in the Medina

 

I began to be fascinated by the history of the region knowing absolutely nothing about it before. Assilah was first Carthaginian; then it became Portuguese in 1471, then Spanish and Moroccan - back again to the Spanish and finally Moroccan in 1956. So where did the French come in? This was intriguing and I needed to learn more. France and Morocco seem to be on friendly terms. When did it begin?  
The Medina was small and could be covered in a little over an hour. The sunset was breathtaking and obviously an evening's outing for the locals and tourists alike. In less than half an hour colors changed from reds to orange and then no more.
 
 

The general atmosphere was care free. No hassling and once we said No to a peddler, we were not pestered again. The one who sold "bark drawings", the shoe cleaner, another selling authentic red coral necklaces.....they all recognized us the second day.  Thanks to Craig's recommendations, we ate well and I decided a few glasses of white wine were not going to kill me.

Apart from nearly freezing in the Ryad where we were staying, it had a lot of charm. It would have been difficult to say that it was anything but authentic but we were to learn that the owner had built it from scratch some years ago.

But finally what was there to do in Assilah? There were enough souks to satisfy the frenetic tourist but we were not after babouches or local trinkets. What had been recommended was firmly closed until finally and fortunately Laurent and I discovered that the International Art centre was open. Obviously not a touristy thing to do as we wandered around alone, well until we were about to leave…. Some of the work I quite liked even if it was not totally original. Arab not being a language I can read or speak, the artist's names were a mystery but here is what I liked. Laurent would not always agree with me. When I started looking more closely at these paintings on a screen, they were full of mystery and with an Arab flavor. The curious thing too if you read the names of the few artists I was able to write down, it was a very International exhibition even if the artists were Arab and living elsewhere in the world.

Ajouter une légende

Souad Al-Altar (Irak) 2002

Rita Aloui  (Maroc) 2002

Suzanne Ouedrago (Burginafasso) 2006

Cecile Brunsweik (USA) 2002

Bachir Amal 2007

Guy Calamusa (France) 2012

The crowds ????

Charming all this maybe, but living in such a town for more than the time we were there......? No. It's very noticeable too that this is a man's world. You don't see too many women wandering around and yet men sit idly in cafés, on steps seemingly doing nothing. The call for prayer does not entice those in the cafés to rush to the Mosque either although some men are seen praying in the streets. Compared to the youth in Paris, these young people do not seem to be in the least bit menacing and yet, I did not feel fully at ease. I was more than glad that L. and J. were there. This is not a country that I would enjoy visiting alone.

The stroll along the beach and virtually empty at that was a pleasure even if those crashing Atlantic waves were enough to put us off putting our feet in "just to try".....it was time to be moving on.


Tangiers. A change in pace. Here we were booked into a five star hotel which hadn’t, it would seem, changed since it was inaugurated in 1930. At least there was running hot water which cannot be said of the Ryad in Assilah.

Here we had a lot to see and the hotel was five minutes from the Medina. Oh dear, New Year's day and even if this country does not celebrate the event, a lot was closed. The Medina comes alive at night. Bustling,  locals pushing their way down narrow streets, some show their wares and yet no-one is pushy. No-one insists. We liked that. Just to prove to myself that I was quite safe, I went off for an hour to the medina and then up to Saint Andrew's Church. I was safe and yet I was very wary of those around me  asking myself all the time, « am I safe »? Thank goodness for telephones. A short message from L. -and they both found me inside the church. Totally minimalist but with charm. Yasmine who opened the church for me started to tell me a little of the history. Tangiers is a place of mystery.  

The Alter

A peep at St Andrew

-Gran_alminar Mosqué

Peeping through a wall

An excellent restaurant where we ate twice "Art and Gourmet"

The Grand Socco (Place)

The history is very rich due to the historical presence of many civilizations and cultures starting from the 5th century BC. Between the period of being a Berber settlement and then a Phoenician town to the independence era around the 1950s, Tangier was a refuge for many cultures. In 1923, it was considered as having international status by foreign colonial powers, and became a destination for many European and American diplomats, spies, writers, artists and businessmen. But still I didn’t know too much about the French. This was becoming frustrating…..here is the little I could make out of the history.

French activity in Morocco began during the end of the 19th century. In 1904 the French government was trying to establish a protectorate over Morocco, and had managed to sign two bilateral secret agreements with Britain (8 April 1904), and Spain (7 October 1904), which guaranteed the support of the powers in question in this endeavour. France and Spain secretly partitioned the territory of the sultanate, with Spain receiving concessions in the far north and south of the country.

France was present in Morocco in the 19th century but reading the story and the comings and goings between the British, the Germans and the Spanish, it is frankly a spy story in itself. It was after Delacroix that Tangier became an obligatory stop for artists seeking to experience the colors and light he spoke of for themselves—with varying results. Matisse made trips to  Tangier, always staying at the Grand Hotel Villa de France.

"I have found landscapes in Morocco," he claimed, "exactly as they are described in Delacroix's paintings."

There was the Kasbah to see.  It was built on the highest point in Tangiers and has excellent views out over the Straits of Gibraltar and neighboring Spain. There aren't many places where you can see two continents at once. I might add that we didn’t! The weather was cloudy bright and unfortunately not good for photos either. 


An interesting exhibition in the Kasbah......

Very strong photos indeed.....

Within its gates of the Kasbah lies a large open courtyard, which leads you up to the Dar el Makhzen - the Sultan's palace from the 17th century, that now serves as a museum. The building is stunning. Inside There is also a museum devoted to Moroccan arts and archeology. We didn’t linger for too long.

The road up to the top of the hill is very steep, and coming down is also quite an adventure. A nice place to stop for lunch and then on - down, down, down we go. Then of course you are in the medina......

The Blue Cafe on top of the Kasbah - those are silk threads

Going down

And further down

More steps

I'll get there

Dark but a nice spot for lunch

Firm ground in the Kasbah

Nothing but head gear

A charming Ryad

With all the family

To another restaurant

Back Street

 The Modern Art museum was unfortunately closed but there were two other galleries to see. A discussion around should a picture have a title or not arose. J. was most insistent that an artist should give his work a title. I am not so sure. Titles - not all of them - categorize paintings for me and do not necessarily describe what I see in a painting, or on the other hand make the painting so specific,  I lose interest. One artist we saw Mohammed Melehi (1936) who is a local artist. We liked his work but quite honestly if these painting had not been called « La Grande Ourse » (the Big Dipper Constellation), I would have been happier to put a little more or myself into his painting.

nuit bleue 2002

Les aventures de Venus 2002

Granbe ourse rouge

Burri 1948 - Collage en jute

Minneapolis 1962

Ecran rose 2002

Give it a title???

There were other galleries but just a few words about the American Legation which is a fascinating building, once again steeped in history. This was the  first American public property outside of the United States, it commemorates the historic cultural and diplomatic relations between the U.S.and Morocco. It is now officially called the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies, and is a cultural center, museum, and a research library, concentrating on Arabic language studies.

Many American visit the centre and in a way it is like an Embassy inside an Arab state. 

Entering the Legation

Announcing the Legation

Steps up to the Legation

Mohamed  Naciric - 

The Spice market 1984

 

Terrence Ma Carthy - Matisse Marabout 1990

Tangiers too has it’s charm. A lovely little tea house next to the Kasbah with an old and sick man making tea. He came alive when his fingers started tapping on a drum playing music with another musician with his violin

 

A corner of the Tea House

Making our tea

The two of them

Playing his drum

Children of all ages - but especially the very young play in the streets, Mothers appear infrequently, other young boys help you find your way for a few dirhan. 

 


 

Gaz metres are disguised and so are street taps….art is everywhere you look. 

 

Taps

A gaz metre

What was once a beautiful theatre is now wreck and ruin

However, it is still a man’s world and if perhaps I had visited that country many years ago, you would see me today like this. 

Never ....

Quick - home to Paris feeling as if I have been away for weeks. Happy, rested and telling myself that I should perhaps not be as speedy as I am and learn a little from the Moroccans’ life style. That resolution was broken the following day. 

Thank you Jerome and Laurent......