This edition of our series on travel writing about Morocco turns to Essaouira and a recent article by the Belgium based travel writer, Brigid Grauman. Brigid (pictured left) is an experienced journalist whose work covers a far wider range than just travel writing. Her story on Andrzej Wajda’s film about the Katyn Forest massacre was read across the globe. But in her latest offering she turns to Essaouira and while avoiding the cliches manages to paint a fine word picture of one of our favourite Moroccan weekend destinations.
Sun, Souk, Bohemian Tinge Entice in Ancient Moroccan Port
There’s nothing quite like the sight of goats standing in a tree.
Near Essaouira, on the western coast of Morocco, the nut of the prickly argan tree produces a gourmet oil that is also a delicacy for goats, who chew its husk. How they get up in those trees remained a mystery even after I’d spent a week in the sunny fortified port town, which is whipped by Atlantic winds.
Among the attractions that bring top-end tourists to the crenellated ochre walls of Essaouira year round is its temperate climate. Moroccans flee the summer heat of Marrakesh for its brisk skies while the sportier crowd rides the waves. In winter, sun-starved Europeans in T-shirts sip mint tea on Place Moulay El Hassan as seagulls squawk overhead. On one side are the port and beach, and on the other the souk selling meat, fruit and trinkets.
Alongside the sea walls, Jack’s Apartments (about 90 euros ($115.06) a night), which features views of the ocean, gives you a taste of what it feels like to live here. Riad de l’O (double rooms from 150 euros), a handsomely converted grain depot, looks out on the long golden beach, while the Villa Maroc, with its inner courtyards and ceramic tiles (doubles from 130 euros), conveys the atmosphere of a traditional Moroccan home.
Orson, Jimi
Americans, British, French, Belgians and Germans have settled here, forming an expatriate community of the kind that once haunted Tangiers. Some restore apartments or riads (townhouses) that they then rent out. Others just hang out. The striking architecture and laidback groove have charmed many over the years, from Orson Welles, who filmed “Othello” here, to Tennessee Williams, Saint-Exupery, the Living Theatre, Jimi Hendrix, Cat Stevens and Leonard Cohen.
Asma Chaabi, 46, the town’s mayor, is the only woman to hold such a job in Morocco. With seven brothers, she learned to be a fighter early on and considers the sometimes hostile local council a challenge.
“Women are less easily corruptible,” she says, “and they make things uncomfortable.” Nonetheless, Chaabi says, Morocco is opening up.
The first major task of her six-year elected tenure was to update the town’s drainage system. Now her most urgent preoccupation is finding work for the local people (population 80,000), whose picturesque fishing trade operates at a loss. While the production of argan oil by women-run cooperatives is exemplary, it is essentially a rural occupation. Tourism is Essaouira’s greatest hope, optimistically symbolized by the small airport with its three weekly flights to Paris.
Luxury Villas
As part of a government development plan, an upscale tourist site with two golf clubs, several posh hotels and classy villas is in the making just outside the town. Not everyone relishes the prospect, but the economic benefits are a convincing argument.
“Tourism is our main source of revenue,” says Chaabi. “Many fishermen now have to carve thuja wood to make a living.”
Over the years, Essaouira has reopened schools and now has a university offshoot that trains young people in the tourist trade.
The most prominent figure in Essaouira’s revival is Andre Azoulay, adviser to King Mohammed VI. He belongs to one of Essaouira’s erstwhile influential Jewish families, and in the 1990s encouraged other former Souiris, as they are known, to invest in the town. One initiative was the creation of music festivals, the most famous of which is the Gnaoua and World Music Festival in June.
“Essaouira’s charm is that it hasn’t lost its soul,” says Azoulay from a table at his favorite restaurant, the Chalet de la Plage.
Bohemian Soul
Much of the town’s soul can be ascribed to its artists, whose work is exhibited, among other places, at the Damgaard Gallery, opened in the 1960s by a Danish art lover and now run by two Belgians. Here you can buy the naive African art brut sculptures and paintings that also draw inspiration from the psychedelic murals the hippies brought to Essaouira in the 1960s. A brightly painted wooden guitar costs 500 euros, the same as a metal goat.
Behind its adobe ramparts, Essaouira’s stone medina was added to Unesco’s list of world heritage sites in 2001. Craftsmen work the intricately veined thuja roots inside workshops built into its walls or sell carpets, woolly hats and paintings of galloping horsemen.
Although Essaouira’s roots go beyond the Phoenicians who did business here, the new town itself was built in the 18th century on the orders of Sultan Sidi Mohamed ben Abdallah, aiming to boost trade with Europe and America.
Cosmopolitan Mix
A French architect and disciple of Vauban, Theodore Cornut, drew the rectilinear plans of Mogador, as it was then known, with its modern medina. The town’s population grew and diversified to include Berber and Arab-speaking tribes, who had worked on its construction; the sultan’s black slave soldiers, who were stationed here; Jewish merchant families and eight of the country’s foreign consulates. By the 19th century, Essaouira had become a rich, cosmopolitan trading center.
That all collapsed with the triumph of steam over sail, and the reorganization of Morocco under the French protectorate (1912-1956). The wealthier families left and Essaouira rapidly declined until its revival as a cultural draw in the 1990s. Now those years in limbo add to its timeless appeal. This is where Hendrix wrote “Castles Made of Sand.”
Brigid's article first appeared on Bloomberg.com and reprinted with the kind permission of the author.
Sun, Souk, Bohemian Tinge Entice in Ancient Moroccan Port
There’s nothing quite like the sight of goats standing in a tree.
Near Essaouira, on the western coast of Morocco, the nut of the prickly argan tree produces a gourmet oil that is also a delicacy for goats, who chew its husk. How they get up in those trees remained a mystery even after I’d spent a week in the sunny fortified port town, which is whipped by Atlantic winds.
Among the attractions that bring top-end tourists to the crenellated ochre walls of Essaouira year round is its temperate climate. Moroccans flee the summer heat of Marrakesh for its brisk skies while the sportier crowd rides the waves. In winter, sun-starved Europeans in T-shirts sip mint tea on Place Moulay El Hassan as seagulls squawk overhead. On one side are the port and beach, and on the other the souk selling meat, fruit and trinkets.
Alongside the sea walls, Jack’s Apartments (about 90 euros ($115.06) a night), which features views of the ocean, gives you a taste of what it feels like to live here. Riad de l’O (double rooms from 150 euros), a handsomely converted grain depot, looks out on the long golden beach, while the Villa Maroc, with its inner courtyards and ceramic tiles (doubles from 130 euros), conveys the atmosphere of a traditional Moroccan home.
Orson, Jimi
Americans, British, French, Belgians and Germans have settled here, forming an expatriate community of the kind that once haunted Tangiers. Some restore apartments or riads (townhouses) that they then rent out. Others just hang out. The striking architecture and laidback groove have charmed many over the years, from Orson Welles, who filmed “Othello” here, to Tennessee Williams, Saint-Exupery, the Living Theatre, Jimi Hendrix, Cat Stevens and Leonard Cohen.
Asma Chaabi, 46, the town’s mayor, is the only woman to hold such a job in Morocco. With seven brothers, she learned to be a fighter early on and considers the sometimes hostile local council a challenge.
“Women are less easily corruptible,” she says, “and they make things uncomfortable.” Nonetheless, Chaabi says, Morocco is opening up.
The first major task of her six-year elected tenure was to update the town’s drainage system. Now her most urgent preoccupation is finding work for the local people (population 80,000), whose picturesque fishing trade operates at a loss. While the production of argan oil by women-run cooperatives is exemplary, it is essentially a rural occupation. Tourism is Essaouira’s greatest hope, optimistically symbolized by the small airport with its three weekly flights to Paris.
Luxury Villas
As part of a government development plan, an upscale tourist site with two golf clubs, several posh hotels and classy villas is in the making just outside the town. Not everyone relishes the prospect, but the economic benefits are a convincing argument.
“Tourism is our main source of revenue,” says Chaabi. “Many fishermen now have to carve thuja wood to make a living.”
Over the years, Essaouira has reopened schools and now has a university offshoot that trains young people in the tourist trade.
The most prominent figure in Essaouira’s revival is Andre Azoulay, adviser to King Mohammed VI. He belongs to one of Essaouira’s erstwhile influential Jewish families, and in the 1990s encouraged other former Souiris, as they are known, to invest in the town. One initiative was the creation of music festivals, the most famous of which is the Gnaoua and World Music Festival in June.
“Essaouira’s charm is that it hasn’t lost its soul,” says Azoulay from a table at his favorite restaurant, the Chalet de la Plage.
Bohemian Soul
Much of the town’s soul can be ascribed to its artists, whose work is exhibited, among other places, at the Damgaard Gallery, opened in the 1960s by a Danish art lover and now run by two Belgians. Here you can buy the naive African art brut sculptures and paintings that also draw inspiration from the psychedelic murals the hippies brought to Essaouira in the 1960s. A brightly painted wooden guitar costs 500 euros, the same as a metal goat.
Behind its adobe ramparts, Essaouira’s stone medina was added to Unesco’s list of world heritage sites in 2001. Craftsmen work the intricately veined thuja roots inside workshops built into its walls or sell carpets, woolly hats and paintings of galloping horsemen.
Although Essaouira’s roots go beyond the Phoenicians who did business here, the new town itself was built in the 18th century on the orders of Sultan Sidi Mohamed ben Abdallah, aiming to boost trade with Europe and America.
Cosmopolitan Mix
A French architect and disciple of Vauban, Theodore Cornut, drew the rectilinear plans of Mogador, as it was then known, with its modern medina. The town’s population grew and diversified to include Berber and Arab-speaking tribes, who had worked on its construction; the sultan’s black slave soldiers, who were stationed here; Jewish merchant families and eight of the country’s foreign consulates. By the 19th century, Essaouira had become a rich, cosmopolitan trading center.
That all collapsed with the triumph of steam over sail, and the reorganization of Morocco under the French protectorate (1912-1956). The wealthier families left and Essaouira rapidly declined until its revival as a cultural draw in the 1990s. Now those years in limbo add to its timeless appeal. This is where Hendrix wrote “Castles Made of Sand.”
Brigid's article first appeared on Bloomberg.com and reprinted with the kind permission of the author.
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