Afternoon tea in the oldest house in Marrakech, and a Travelife to Morocco from April 18-27, 2015. And about checking out a rundown riad for sale.

I had a very interesting and enjoyable day today in Marrakech, living a Travelife.

First, I woke up late and skipped breakfast entirely.

At the Carita spa in Marrakech

Then I headed down to the hotel spa to get a Carita facial and a massage.

I’m a great fan of Carita from Paris, so I always try and get a facial treatment at a Carita spa when I find it somewhere in the world.

The nearest Carita spas where I live are in Hong Kong and in Tokyo.

More on this in a future blog entry.

The ladies at the Carita spa in Marrakech. The Carita facial is just amazing.

In the afternoon, I went for afternoon tea with someone at a stylish cafe right in the heart of the souk of Marrakech, converted from the oldest house in the medina.

This stylish cafe was created in the oldest house in Marrakech.

It was simple but gorgeous, and I so enjoyed sitting in the courtyard, talking about life in Morocco.

After enjoying some tea and climbing up to the roof for a view of Marrakech, we walked all across town through innumerable alleys to the Jewish quarter of the city, to see an old riad that’s for sale.

This riad only has eight rooms and, frankly, the owner hasn’t really maintained it in great style.

But it took my breath away because it has such great bones for a riad — or for a private house, actually.

The courtyard has a pool, and it’s a perfect size for a jewel of a place.

In fact, it reminded me of the presidential suite of the Villa des Orangers, which is a luxury Relais & Chateaux property in Marrakech, where I stayed last June.

On holiday at the Villa des Orangers in Marrakech, last June

And the rooftop reminded me of the rooftop of the villa I stayed at at the breathtakingly lovely Royal Mansour, which has been called one of the most beautiful hotels in the world.

Except the rooftop of this riad for sale needs major fixing up.

Our villa at the exquisite Royal Mansour in Marrakech

The piece de resistance of this riad that is for sale, however, is the inner courtyard, which is made entirely of wood.

It’s decorated so ornately, and it has the most exquisite lamp in the centre.

But beautiful as it was, there were no clients around — or so it seemed. And everything had an air of disuse about. This riad has definitely seen better days. 

The lobby of the Royal Mansour in Marrakech

So when we went in, I had to ask the lady watching over the place to turn on the lights.

It was pitch dark, and we felt we’d just knocked on the door of someone’s house and the owner was away.

Some of the lamps didn’t even have bulbs in them.

Poolside dining for two at the Villa des Orangers in Marrakech last June, living a Travelife

To top it off, the decor is a mishmash of styles that don’t fit. Eclectic is nice, but this one was just like a house full of old and new stuff lying around.

But while I was walking around it, all I could think of was how beautiful this would look with a bit more style and a change of interiors.


It could be a riad, a private house, or a villa for rent by the week or the month.

The presidential villa of the Villa des Orangers in Marrakech was really a small jewel of a riad within a riad

It could even be a beautiful Relais & Chateaux property, just like the Villa des Orangers in Marrakech, which is run so perfectly by a very nice Frenchman.

Or like the Relais & Chateaux hotel of the great French chef Michel Trama in the countryside of France.

Yes, this was what I was thinking about on our second-to-the-last day in Marrakech, living a never-ending, and never-endingly eventful Travelife.