I've long yearned to visit Morocco and for my birthday Philippe made my dream come true with a truly magical vacation in Morocco. I was thrilled to discover it lived up to and indeed exceeded my expectations.
We decided to begin the tour in the city of Fez. Our hotel Riad Fez, a Relais & Chateaux luxury boutique hotel is in the Medina, the ancient walled city that dates back to 790 AD and is a protected UNESCO World Heritage site. The only way around the Medina is on foot or by donkey and we were all surprised by the warren of narrow streets, small anonymous front doors and endless stairways. Then you'd step through one of the small doors that you sometimes have to bend to get through and find yourself transported into a lush courtyard, entry point to a beautiful riad or private home.
And then there was the shopping!! We were very fortunate to have with us Ibrahim Mouhib who was born and raised in Fez and is himself an accomplished designer, whose medium is weaving leather, horn, wool, cotton, wood and metal together to create a range of scarves, bags, accessories and homewares. Hired by our outstanding A-List private travel group, Heritage Tours Ibrahim was the perfect guide to introduce us to the Souk. We also met the artisans who work with him on his various projects and are all members of the city's Fez el Bali, a Cooperative of potters, tanners, weavers, metalworkers, and embroiderers all creating stunningly beautiful hand-crafted objects.
Stay tuned - there's more to come...
Lobby at the Riad Fez decorated in classic Moroccan style with a little 18th century French thrown in - perfect!
Can you believe the details in the ceramic tiling and it's all done by hand. I'm going cross-eyed just thinking about it...
The downstairs sitting area in our suite...walls enhanced with elaborate Moorish tiling serves as artwork
A typically narrow street for foot traffic only,...there's no way to tell one house from the other or even one street from the other for that matter
Behind one of those small anonymous doors we found this oasis
Classic pendant lights - it's all a designer's dream in terms of inspiration
The doors to the palace, but sadly the King is not in residence
When the Royal family arrives this area is completely covered in red carpet to welcome them home