Place Djemma ElFna

Late afternoon:
Lots of dried fruit for sale.



Night:

The biggest barbecue in the world..........



Very Early Morning:

The water truck arrives and washes the square.



Morning:

All that grease and dropped food needs serious scraping..........


Later Morning:

The square begins to fill up with people and trucks and mopeds.
The building in the background is the post office.

Stationery Store/Medina

Stationery Store/Medina, originally uploaded by schmidwix2.

Back to school - sigh -
Some of these books are for shops and offices - but some are for the classroom.

Pink Ladies on Derb Djedid

Pink Saturday!hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.

DSCN1780, originally uploaded by schmidwix2.

An afternoon outing.

Shop Windows in Gueliz

Wonderful rich fabric.
What curtains or cushions of our dreams would it make?



A rather meagre selection of articles in the electrician's window.



A thousand splendid magazines for every taste. Note the inflatable Santa in the doorway..........

Ismail's Mom's Magic Chicken Tagine

IMG_0161.JPG, originally uploaded by schmidwix2.

Recipe:
Chicken breasts
every veggie that's in season
love and attention
magic seasonings
long slow cooking under a conical hat
one could attempt this outside Morocco - Williams Sonoma now has packets of tagine spices -
but much better to go there.............
sigh

Mostly Pink/ Pink Saturday

Pink Saturday is hosted by Beverly of How Sweet the Sound. Go to her site for more details and other participants.

Shop front on Derb Dabachi.



Outside Cafe France. Waiting by the caleches.



A hand painted sign above a closed butcher's shop in tne medina.



Shop selling towels in Gueliz.



Ollie relaxing in the sun on the roof.

Light at Midday

The light in the suqs would be unbearably bright without the coverings which cause light to slant.



Scarves and slippers to fill your dreams.



I like the round toes slippers best but chic people go for the pointy ones.



In the Mellah market light falls on mopeds and plastic containers and makes even the mundane look romantic and enticing.

Everyday Life

I chose this picture to remind myself what life in Marrakech actually looks like - away from the exoticism of the Djemma elFnaa and palaces and mountains.
This is a little road which goes between the back of Cafe France and Derb Dabachi.
It is very typical.
Here we have two young men on cell phones. One of them has a moped.
Lots of things for sale - most made in China, of course. Lots of pretty dresses and outfits for children.
The towel has a cartoon character on it.
The middle- aged woman has a stylish outfit - traditional and up to date at the same time.
The young girl working in the shop hasn't covered her hair but is wearing long pants.
Back in New York for a few weeks now, I've stopped being amazed by the acres of bare female flesh which shocked me at first.

Pink Saturday

No great difficulty searching for pink photos in the archives from Marrakech!
Flowers on the courtyard table.

This is my first attempt at Pink Saturday, hosted by How Sweet the Sound which I heard of via Pink Purl.




A subtle wall in an elegant house in Mousassine. Very photo-ready.



Children playing at a very modern play environment in Gueliz.



A pink-pink path in the Jardin Majorelle.



And last of all the ubiquitous pink wall. This one on derb elArsa off Kennaria.

Dunes at Diabat

IMG_1517.JPG, originally uploaded by schmidwix2.

The sea is behind us.
What a lot of sand in front.

Brideshead Revisited

Last night I went to see the new film version of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited at the arts cinema in Huntington on Long Island.
I first read the book more than 30 years ago and was amazingly impressed by it.
I had quite forgotton the bit set in Marrakech.



Lo and behold, the whole sequence where Charles goes down to Morocco to find Sebastian is set in the Bahia Palace, one of my favorite places and one that loyal readers of this blog will be aware I have photographed every square inch of. It was within walking distance of the little house on derb Djedid.


So I sat there going "Ooh......Ooh...... look at that!" and so on in an irritating manner.
But it was wonderful to look at it again.



Anyway back to Brideshead. I do recommend you to see it - though this version seems rather sadder than I recall it.
Here Sebastian is presented as less charming and more doomed from the word go.
Of course, most of us will go just to drool at Oxford, Venice and Marrakech which dazzle us much as they dazzled Charles Ryder.



The choice of the Bahia Palace was a stroke of genius; it is so very dilapidated and decaying and so enchantingly beautiful -I think we are heading to heavy metaphor territory here.



Thinking decadence and decay, you might read or see Thomas Mann's Death in Venice.
La Grand Meaulness by Alain Fournier is wonderful on theme of ordinary people being seduced by beautiful places.

Two Doors

Muriel from South Africa has very kindly given me this award! I am very flattered and honored.
So now I get to pass it on.
This is fun but I sometimes feel bad not to give it to everyone - which I would. I suppose it's just a way of telling people we enjoy their contributions to Blogworld. Please post or not to suit.........
Tracey of Pink Purl for always being upbeat and artistic and celebrating 2 years in Blogland.
Constance of Rochambeau for enriching and delighting us.
Gretel of Middle of Nowhere a wonderful writer, artist and creative spirit.
Willow of Willow Manor who likes the same books and movies I do.
Karen Cole of Artsortments because her latest sketches of people at the beach are too good to miss.
Kristen of Kristen's Brainstorm who is an amazing mom and lives in Marrakech and is recovering from a very serious illness which she writes about in a most thoughtful way.
Suburbia from Moments in Suburbia because she makes me remember what it was like to be a mother of young children and what fun it was.



I am always intrigued by the complexity of the detail surrounding doorways.
Here one on rue Riad Zitoun lakadim.



Another on the same street with all sorts of notices for businesses including a lawyer.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Shadow Shot Sunday again. See Hey Harriet for a list of participants.
Pictures by my daughter Claudia Schmid.
The mosque at Diabat just outside Essouira. This small village is being altered out of all recognition to make a resort with golf courses and so on. Bulldozers are razing the hill.
A pity.
They want to make it into "TheSt.Tropez of Morocco."



The amazing Portuguese water cistern in El Jadia another coastal town.
This site was used by Orson Wells in his Othello which is a very strange film.



Cafe Hafa just outside Tangiers - where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean.

Cats

Moroccan cats, like their cousins all over the globe, have mastered the art of taking it easy. Maybe we should learn from them.
Here are two cats who haven't visited the blog before.
The first one lives in the Bahia Palace, and is slightly down-at-heels but comfortable with himself.
Nothing to do but catch some morning rays.



This character lives in Essouira.
He is practicing seeing how very far he can stretch out.