V&T Daily
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luxury in morocco
Published in the April-June 2010 issue.
Mark Chipperfield heads to Morocco to soak up the delights of La Mamounia, a luxury palace-hotel of fabled proportions.
“There are only three golden rules about a palace of this standing,” says designer Jacques Garcia of his beloved Moroccan hotel, La Mamounia. “Elegance, elegance and elegance.” Immortalised in the 1955 movie The Man Who Knew Too Much, La Mamounia is, without doubt, Morocco’s most revered and iconic hotel – a haunt of the rich and famous since 1929. Its roll-call of guests reads like a Who’s Who of the 20th century, spanning actors, models, rock-stars, presidents and European royalty.
Winston Churchill, the hotel’s most devoted fan, once described the gardens at La Mamounia as “the loveliest spot in the whole world”. The British statesman delighted in the establishment’s views of the Atlas Mountains – a scene he often painted from his hotel room balcony. In gratitude, La Mamounia named an opulent suite and its sexy piano bar in Churchill’s honour.
Garcia is quite correct in calling La Mamounia a palace rather than a mere hotel. Tucked inside Marrakesh’s ancient red ramparts, the property covers an astonishing 15 hectares: eight hectares consists of immaculate gardens, including a historic avenue of olive trees and newly planted vegetable and herb plot.
Everything about the 210-room hotel is on a grand scale. From the moment you step through the ornate doorway – flanked by no less than six liveried Berber tribesmen – you enter a world that hovers between the romance of pre-war Morocco and the cool decadence of today’s super-rich.
La Mamounia, an oasis amid the aromatic mayhem and cacophony of Marrakesh’s teeming medieval souks, was always an astonishing place: a curious melange of traditional Arab craftsmanship and Art Deco design. The masterful renovation under Garcia’s guidance has preserved the spirit of the old sultan’s palace and its elegant grounds while taking the opulence level up several notches. So, while the grand marble halls with their inlaid floors, vaulted pillars and hand-painted ceilings have all been retained, the property now has a number of new attractions, including a 2,500-square-metre spa, a larger swimming pool (the pool house is modelled on a 17th-century princely pavilion) and a fleet of luxury cars and Range Rovers in which to whisk guests around town or up into the Atlas Mountains.
La Mamounia now boasts three restaurants – Le Français, L’Italien and the new garden restaurant, Le Morocain – plus five bars. Comparatively casual, the pool terrace, Le Pavillon de la Piscine, serves buffet-style breakfasts and lunches. The choice at both is overwhelming: at breakfast, for instance, guests can choose from a dazzling array of fresh fruits, Continental pastries, Moroccan dishes and the world’s most delicious fruit yoghurt.
The terrace is definitely the place for celebrity-watching: during our stay, Sex In The City star Sarah Jessica Parker had taken up residence in the hotel while filming in the south of Morocco and could often be seen sunning herself by the pool.
While some improvements to the hotel have been structural, the most time-consuming part of La Mamounia’s rebirth was the delicate restoration of its many murals, tiled flooring, carved ceilings, plasterwork and myriad artworks; each of the famous zillij mosaics, for instance, had to be entirely cut and applied by hand.
“Morocco is probably the only place in the world where artisans can still paint a ceiling exactly like the original 16th-century one,” says Garcia, one of France’s most celebrated designers. “La Mamounia is to Marrakesh what the Louvre is to Paris. Only here, some can stay. It’s like spending the night in a museum.”
But this is a museum in the coolest sense of the word; one in which mysterious low lighting, wafting gauze curtains, chilled North African mood music and a signature scent (created for the hotel by Olivia Giacobeti, one of only seven ‘noses’ in the world) create a distinctly contemporary vibe, despite the hotel’s long and distinguished pedigree.
Guestrooms, too, show a clever balance of the contemporary and the traditional. Modern technology such as iPod docks and flatscreen televisions sit effortlessly beside delicately carved plasterwork, rich drapes and immaculate Moroccan tiled walls; suites come with their own sumptuous living rooms and private terraces.
The hotel’s general manager, Didier Picquot, explains that as part of the renovation, the number of rooms has been reduced from 241 to 210, allowing more suites to be added – plus new plumbing and technology to bring the hotel into the 21st century. “I have managed great hotels such as the Ritz Paris and The Pierre in New York,” he says. “But La Mamounia offers so much. There’s history, for a start, and its location, on the edge of the walls of the old city. Then there’s the fact that we have two two-Michelin-star chefs with us – and the wonderful, unique experience of the gardens, filled with century-old olive trees.”
One night, we dined on the top floor of Le Morocain – a sort of hotel within a hotel – with the smell of jasmine and orange blossom drifting up from the garden below. Little bowls of salad were followed by larger plates of tagine and an aromatic meat dish known as a tangier, followed by a whopping mountain of couscous. The meal, more like a culinary expedition, was washed down by generous glasses of Moroccan rosé, which is excellent.
Founded in 1062, Marrakesh has long been one of the wonders of North Africa. Once the heart of a great empire, today’s old city contains many fine mosques, palaces, ornamental gardens and stately riads. The city’s most famous monument, Koutoubia Mosque, still dominates the two-storey skyline, while its hawkers, snake-charmers, storytellers, date salesmen and bloodthirsty dentists continue to ply their trades in the Place Jemaa el-Fna, as they have done for centuries. Both sites are a short walk from the hotel – or a two-minute ride by limousine.
But as all seasoned travellers know, great hotels are not merely the combination of superlative service, fine cuisine, luxurious accommodation and knock-out locations: each must also have a special identity, a sense of place and a certain poise. La Mamounia has all these qualities in abundance: in fact, the first-time visitor soon realises that this establishment requires a high level of etiquette.
On my first morning, I wandered down to the pool, planning to swim a few laps. The liveried staff sprang to attention to open the doors – until they glanced down at my feet. Quelle horreur! I had left my room without putting on my slippers. What heathen was this?
I did not repeat my mistake. •
Photography courtesy of The Leading Hotels of the World.
TRAVEL FACTS
getting there
- Etihad Airways flies to Casablanca from Australia via Abu Dhabi, with domestic connections to Marrakesh. Phone 1800 998 995 or visit www.etihadairways.com
where to stay
- La Mamounia consists of 136 guest rooms, 71 deluxe suites and three self-contained riads (private houses). The hotel also offers a range of packages under its ‘unique experiences’ label. For more information, contact The Leading Hotels of the World on 1800 222 033 (Australia) or 0800 44 1016 (New Zealand) or visit www.lhw.com
further information
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