From Majorelle to La Mamounia

The only rousing part of the recent Yves Saint Laurent biopic was when a flash of electric blue and cactus signalled that the drama, if you can call it that, had shifted to Marrakech and the Jardin Majorelle. I stirred at this point, not because the film had become gripping but because I’d visited the place just the week before.

Saved from redevelopment when Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé acquired it in 1980, Jardin Majorelle is one of the most visited places in Marrakech. According to one guidebook it’s “a place of shade”. This is true. But when we arrived at noon on a warm Saturday morning in March it didn’t quite fulfil its other promise of being “a place of serenity”. There was a queue snaking along the Rue Yves Saint Laurent – not as tranquil as it might have been if we’d arrived when it opened at 8am.

Although he hadn’t visited himself, he said he knew it well. “My parents always used to stay there when we lived in the Sudan”

It was time spent the day before at La Mamounia, culminating in a stroll around its 17 acres of gardens, that proved more restorative. It was all big skies, tended lawns, even vegetable gardens, set against the coo of wood pigeons and the ping of balls against racquets. Even though it’s only five minutes’ walk from the bustle and theatre of Jemaa el-Fnaa Square, La Mamounia truly feels a million miles away; it’s easy to see why Winston Churchill, one of La Mamounia’s most celebrated guests – who liked to pull out his palette and paint here – once described it to Franklin D. Roosevelt as “the most lovely spot in the whole world”.

Built in 1923, La Mamounia is the hotel that made Marrakech a glamorous destination long before the proliferation of boutique hotels-cum-riads or the recent announcement that the Park Hyatt and the Mandarin Oriental will arrive here soon. Just the other day I described La Mamounia to a friend. Although he hadn’t visited himself, he said he knew it well. “My parents always used to stay there when we lived in the Sudan.” No doubt his parents would notice changes since their visits in the 1970s: perhaps most of all, the results of the three-year refurbishment, by the French architect and designer Jacques Garcia (best-known for the Hôtel Costes in Paris), that saw the hotel restored to its Art Deco glory for its re-opening in 2009.

On this occasion we were celebrating my husband’s birthday. We started in the spa, enjoying the best hammam and gommage I’ve ever had. Following my 15-minute steam, my attendant arrived in a black regulation bathing costume, ready to scrub me down. I was washed and rinsed with La Mamounia-branded black soap; then came the vigorous rubdown, before I was daubed in clay and washed down again with a fragrant rose soap. It was the first time I’ve ever experienced a gommage that’s carried out standing up. Eventually, I emerged from the dark hammam, tingling and clean, and, reunited with my husband, vowing to find a place where we could do this regularly at home in London.

The hotel has four restaurants: Le Marocain, Le Français, L’Italien and Le Pavilion de La Piscine. Having grown tired of couscous, we opted for lunch on the terrace of Le Francais, and enjoyed rabbit rillettes, onion soup (thankfully they weren’t overzealous with the cheese), grilled sole, soufflé – with dessert the icing on the cake, if that isn’t too much of a tautology – and glasses of Ruinart and Pouilly-Fumé.

Happy and sated, we stretched out on loungers next to the magnificent palm-fringed, heated pool. Even if you’re not staying in the hotel, you can access some of the wonders of La Mamounia: weekend passes (from MAD1500 per person) permit access to the pools, the gym pavilion and spa. Weekday passes start at MAD3000 per visitor, and include a 60-minute massage. With temperatures in Marrakech hitting a sweltering 40 degrees from June onwards, and accentuating the chaos of the more over-populated tourist sites, why would you be anywhere else? C

La Mamounia, Arset El Maach, Marrakesh, Morocco
+212 5243-88600; mamounia.com*

*website with music warning!