I’m not much of a forward planner, but when the March ’23 dates for @tangierpaintingholiday appeared in my Instagram feed last August, I immediately pulled the trigger. The team behind the four-day sketching and painting immersion—old friend Joan Hecktermann and her cohort, Gavin Houghton, both ex World of Interiors art and culture savants—would be the ideal guides to the bohemian side of the city. I anticipated insider access to extraordinary and exotic interiors—for example, Houghton’s own La di Dar and designer Veere Grenney’s lush garden. I promptly enlisted my well-traveled photographer friend Annie Schlechter, a peripatetic illustrator of books and fellow flâneuse.
It was February when Annie and I realized that we needed to find somewhere to stay. There are several charming small hotels and riads recommended by our hosts—more on those later—but I consulted Airbnb and found an inexpensive four-bedroom townhouse in the Medina, with two shaded roof terraces and a plunge pool.
The expat Parisian owner sent her driver to pick me up at the airport and was on site to run through the essentials. She assured me that we would be perfectly safe to wander around the alleyways of the Medina, but after many experiences of getting lost in the labyrinth that is Marrakech, I waited for Annie to arrive the following day. As I’d managed to bring the wrong travel adapter and had neither GPS nor map, I skipped dinner, devoured a novel (The Big Swiss) in my comfortable bed, scoured the kitchen for ingredients and made pasta and olive oil, a meal that my son might refer to as “basic.”
By the time Annie arrived I was starving, if well-rested. We hit the rug emporium, Bleu de Fez, then found our first tagine in the rooftop restaurant Le Bistrot du Petit Socco, followed by excellent coffee at Café Tingis—people-watching central. The Tangerine merchants were helpful, smiling, relaxed, and tolerant of our rusty French. We felt completely free to poke around as we began to form imaginary shopping lists, easily persuading ourselves that we needed a large mustard yellow Berber rug or Moroccan wedding blanket heavy with jingling silver metal coins. Without a plan, we meandered upwards towards the Kasbah until we found the fabulous Laure Welfling’s store housed in the old courthouse opposite the Kasbah Museum. Here we marveled at brocaded Nehru jackets, Italianate mirrors shaped like galleons, (the cat’s) decorative pajamas, jewel-colored leather slippers, lace-ups made from kilims. We wanted it all. As my shoe size wasn’t in stock, Welfling’s son Nile kindly pointed us in the direction of the shoemaker, where we could buy babouches and mules in every size and shade; my first purchase was a pair of soft chocolate brown slippers and then some orange ones.
To ensure that we were never hungry again, we headed to the market where we bought every kind of bread available—a flakey filo square (toasted) became our favorite—and a huge selection of cookies made from pistachios, almonds or walnuts, marzipan and honey in different combinations. Then to the egg stall, which sells all kinds, from tiny quail eggs to an oversized turkey variety. We plumped for white eggs with very translucent shells from organic chickens, we were told.
Before sundown, we installed ourselves on the rooftop of the Nord Pinus Hotel for cocktails (possibly the most storied lodgings in town—formerly the grand palace of a pasha and the Moroccan outpost of the original bohemian Nord Pinus in Arles, where Cocteau and Picasso exchanged art for lodging). Here we could listen to the muzzeh and look over a patchwork of rooftop terraces and ocean beyond. The dining room, with its arched nooks and low-slung banquettes, looked very seductive, so we resolved to return for dinner but somehow never did, as there were other seductive terraces to consider (Dar Noor or El Morocco).
Once we were in the swing of our painting and drawing lessons, our days were busy, but we did make time to go to the spa at the delightfully old-world Minzah Hotel, where Annie chose a hammam and I an excellent, thorough deep-tissue massage (my diminutive masseuse even leapt onto the table). We also made an excursion to the Casabarata, a huge flea market in a neighborhood outside the Medina. If we were already considering acquiring our own riads, this, we realized, would be the place to discover all the fixtures and fittings. Or the place to buy fabrics to take to one of the many tailors in town for bespoke kaftans.
I allowed myself a day off after the course ended and spent it with my teachers, Gavin Houghton and Joan Hecktermann, at L’Océan, a fish restaurant on a vast stretch of beach about 30 minutes out of town. Over a very long lunch we ate delicious Dover sole, oysters, and grilled calamari (with not a tagine in sight), and drank many bottles of gris, the local Moroccan rosé.
As I still have so much to see and do—below is my list, blended with a few recommendations from my hosts—I will most definitely return, sketchbook in hand. Sketching and Tangier are both addictive and require more practice.
Shopping
Laure Welfling – Interiors, clothes perfect for the dandy-at-large, antiques, ceramics, chandeliers
Las Chicas – Boho get-ups and small cafe, jewelry and home accessories
Majid – Antiques, rare textiles, jewelry
Topolina – Idiosyncratic bohemian garb for nights at El Morocco
Les Insolites – Charming bookstore, especially if you need a copy of L’Etranger or other French classic for posing at Café Tingis
Madini – Perfumes and soaps; orange blossom is the signature scent
Kasbah Collective – Modern interiors and clothing
Fondouk Chejra – Weavers (currently being restored)
Bleu de Fez – Carpets of every hue and texture
Eating, Drinking and Staying
Café Tingis – People-watching and coffee, perfect for flâneurs
Riad Moktar – A few rooms and a pretty restaurant plus a rooftop for pizza
Dar Nour – A small hotel with rambling romantic roof terraces and views over the bay
The Nord Pinus – Old-world style, delicious food; a rooftop view of the port and ocean beyond
Le Bistrot du Petit Socco – Ideal for a quick lunch with the best view of the square
L’Océan – Seafood restaurant for a beach day 30 minutes’ drive from the city
San Remo – A throwback to 1985, perfect if you’re craving a red tablecloth Italian place serving all the classics
Chez Hassan – Cheap, delicious local fare; no alcohol
El Morocco Club – Good if pricey food, with a piano bar in the basement for pre/post-dinner drinks
Saveur de Poisson – Cheap with no menu or alcohol, but highly recommended, with four courses of freshly caught fish
Villa Mabrouka – Jasper Conran’s new hotel in Yves St. Laurent’s former Tangier villa
Culture
American Legation – A cultural hub documenting Tangier in photography and art
Cinema Rif – Independent movie house
Kasbah Museum – Antiques, artifacts, and sculpture
Ibn Batouta museum – Ibn Batouta was a medieval traveler who recorded his travels
Donabo Gardens – A garden next to the sea with all the trimmings: café, store, events
Day trip to Chefchouan – A city in the Rif Mountains known for its blue-and-white palette
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.