Riad Palais des Princesses

On this trip, we have stayed in a variety of accommodations: Tents in the Sahara, hotels, and twice now, in a riad. A riad is a small private hotel in a building which was originally constructed as a traditional home.

The one in which we stayed most recently is the Riad Palais des Princesses. It is located in the Médina of Marrakech, and is reached through a maze of alleys leading from the main square.

After turning off the main alley and making another turn, this is what you see, and you wonder if you have gone the wrong way:

You come upon a fairly anonymous opening and turn down it, wondering what kind of a lodging you will find. After all, the city of Marrakech was found in 1064, so the houses in its Medina must have been built fairly close to that time.

What you first come upon is the resident mother cat and her kittens, who seem to really enjoy lounging in this pot!

Then you enter the main open air courtyard, and are immediately charmed by the marble fountain tinkling in the center, filled with rose petals, and the birds singing and flying in and out. Here is a picture of that courtyard from above.

The walls and doors in this courtyard are beautifully decorated. Here are the doors,

And the beautifully carved plaster immediately above, which, unlike most of the carved plaster we have seen in Morocco, is painted as well

My room was on the top floor, reached by a narrow and winding stair, with a chandelier overhead and hand painted mural on the wall.

And actually consisted of two rooms, which wrapped around an interior courtyard, seen through one of the windows that looked onto it:

Here, the woodwork was painted with flower motifs. Here’s the side of the shutter that faced the room,

And the side of the shutter that faced the courtyard was also decorated, although no one could have seen the decorations.

The doors to the closets were similarly elaborate:

I looked through one of my windows and saw a window opposite that did not have glass or shutters:

And soon discovered that this gave on another set of stairs

which climbed to the roof garden

Where several of us sat one evening to enjoy a glass of wine and the breeze (the temperature in Marrakesh had dropped to 95 this day)

We enjoyed three nights in the riad, before taking our leave. We were not unduly surprised to see that the cats were at the front door, waiting to bid us goodbye!

Mary

Published from Essaouira 10/4/19