In the Bahia Palace

The courtyard garden is reflected in the window glass.
Inside the room are more painted doors.
Magic.

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.

Yellow in Marrakech

Back to left over photos by me.........
This post is for Mrs.Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday Y.
Yellow cloth drying in the Dyers' Souk.



The lovely yellow urn at the Jardin Majorelle and the lily pond.



Flowers against the yellow tadelekt in the courtyard of the little house which I miss.



In the Bahia Palace such wild painted ceilings. These stripes feature a rather a subtle yellow.

Light Falls........

................on a House on Rue Prince Moulay Rachid just off the main square. I love the soft green of the window frames.
A palm tree casts a wonderful reflection over the front door......



This is the bank next to the previous house. The interior is wonderful French colonial architecture - but they won't let me take photos there.



This is at the Bahia Palace; the scalloped looking shadow is the edge of the roof tiles.



Also Bahia Palace where there are no windows but the light falls from above.



A long hallway..........

Monday Morning at the Bahia Palace

If you get to things very early, before the hordes of tourists appear, everything is lovely and peaceful.
The best part of the palace is the most distant.
Looking from the courtyard into the furthest garden.............



where young women were cleaning the fountains............



Almost everything is rather ancient, decrepit, and falling apart........which is what makes it so wonderful.

Even the plastic bucket has a certain charm.



Inside the palace light falls through stained glass onto yet another marble basin........

Looking Upwards

Moroccan ceilings are very often elaborately decorated.
I used to think that they were painted in situ - like Michaelangelo did the Sistine Chapel.



But, in fact,they are painted at ground level and then put up later.
These first two pictures are from Dar Mimoun.



The last three pictures are from the Bahia Palace - where you can see wonderful examples of all sorts of painted surfaces. Here the shape of the lamp echoes the sklight.



Because there really aren't windows on to the outside world, it would a be a delight to look out through the roof.



There is a lot of painted cut plasterwork too.