Ksar Char Bagh: a palace from the past
In the palace as well as in the gardens, water is at home here. It flows in the sand, runs in the channels of the vegetable garden, there since the middle ages, into the Fayoum pool, passes through the citrus fruit orchard or falls into the swimming pool and soothes your dreams. It needed several years, and the twin talents and passion of a French couple Nicole and Patrick Grandsire-Levillair, to produce, as if by magic, the Ksar Char Bagh, from nothing into a palace in hollow of the Marrakech palm grove.
The gardens of paradise
These give their name to the Ksar Char Bagh, a Persian garden surrounded by walls where paths and canals run and crisscross like the rivers of paradise.
Following her dream, Nicole created this ancient palace, taking her inspiration from the Moorish architecture of the 14th century, carefully restrained yet highlighting all that is most beautiful. The result is all that she hoped for, Syrian furniture, silky material, coffered ceilings and a few arabesques in the stucco, decorate the area in a simple and pared down way.
We love the mixture of proportions, the vaulted doorways, the pools, the terraces strewn with carpets and soft cushions where it is wonderful to sip a glass of mint tea while the sun sets over the snows of the Atlas Mountains.
Suites and courts in which to live your dreams
The palace has a number of spaces with evocative names; the Gueizas courtyard, the passage of the falcons, the passage of the fleeting carpets, the Muqarnas gallery. Here we can lose ourselves in our dreams.
The Harim suites - some of which have pools - with terraces or gardens, have niches and tall vaulted ceilings which make the rooms elegant and airy. The floors are in beige or grey marble that harmonises with the colours of the materials and cushions,walls are painted in traditional lime and pigment washes which set off the furniture and bathrooms with sarcophagi for baths.
Some are decorated in warm colours with filtered light; the grey of Paris is far away, the only sound that you hear is the murmuring of the water or the rustling of bird's wings. We like to linger in the garden, in the shade of hundred year old olive trees or beneath the kindly rays of the morning sun.
Temptations to infinity
Each meal is served in a different area; breakfast is in your "harim" or in the garden with home-cooked Moroccan pastries. Tables are laid near the pool for lunch or elsewhere as your fancy takes you, the meal being fresh from the market and flavoured with herbs and spices.
Dinner is in the small drawing room, on the Tower Terrace, inside or out, with dishes whose influence is Mediterranean.
The spa, a distillation of pleasure
At sunset, in a bath perfumed with essential oils of orange flower, let yourself float away in a marble pool sunk into the ground and stare through the latticed window over the grounds.
You could also give yourself over to massage with argan oil, in a room with ochre washed wall, in the open air under the sails of white saris or in a room dotted with carpets and cushions, by the light of shaded candles.
Another treat - let yourself be tempted by the timeless simplicity of the hamman where Moroccan masseuses repeat time-honoured gestures inherited from their mothers and which start with a traditional exfoliation.
The room in chocolate coloured white marble is the stuff of a Thousand and One Nights with an octagonal pool, scented candles with flickering flames. Beneath the light of the stars and under a halo of candles, the Ksar Char Bagh distils pleasures like so many perfumes.
The spirit takes flight and dreams for a moment of the sultans of yesteryear.
These give their name to the Ksar Char Bagh, a Persian garden surrounded by walls where paths and canals run and crisscross like the rivers of paradise.
Following her dream, Nicole created this ancient palace, taking her inspiration from the Moorish architecture of the 14th century, carefully restrained yet highlighting all that is most beautiful. The result is all that she hoped for, Syrian furniture, silky material, coffered ceilings and a few arabesques in the stucco, decorate the area in a simple and pared down way.
We love the mixture of proportions, the vaulted doorways, the pools, the terraces strewn with carpets and soft cushions where it is wonderful to sip a glass of mint tea while the sun sets over the snows of the Atlas Mountains.
Suites and courts in which to live your dreams
The palace has a number of spaces with evocative names; the Gueizas courtyard, the passage of the falcons, the passage of the fleeting carpets, the Muqarnas gallery. Here we can lose ourselves in our dreams.
The Harim suites - some of which have pools - with terraces or gardens, have niches and tall vaulted ceilings which make the rooms elegant and airy. The floors are in beige or grey marble that harmonises with the colours of the materials and cushions,walls are painted in traditional lime and pigment washes which set off the furniture and bathrooms with sarcophagi for baths.
Some are decorated in warm colours with filtered light; the grey of Paris is far away, the only sound that you hear is the murmuring of the water or the rustling of bird's wings. We like to linger in the garden, in the shade of hundred year old olive trees or beneath the kindly rays of the morning sun.
Temptations to infinity
Each meal is served in a different area; breakfast is in your "harim" or in the garden with home-cooked Moroccan pastries. Tables are laid near the pool for lunch or elsewhere as your fancy takes you, the meal being fresh from the market and flavoured with herbs and spices.
Dinner is in the small drawing room, on the Tower Terrace, inside or out, with dishes whose influence is Mediterranean.
The spa, a distillation of pleasure
At sunset, in a bath perfumed with essential oils of orange flower, let yourself float away in a marble pool sunk into the ground and stare through the latticed window over the grounds.
You could also give yourself over to massage with argan oil, in a room with ochre washed wall, in the open air under the sails of white saris or in a room dotted with carpets and cushions, by the light of shaded candles.
Another treat - let yourself be tempted by the timeless simplicity of the hamman where Moroccan masseuses repeat time-honoured gestures inherited from their mothers and which start with a traditional exfoliation.
The room in chocolate coloured white marble is the stuff of a Thousand and One Nights with an octagonal pool, scented candles with flickering flames. Beneath the light of the stars and under a halo of candles, the Ksar Char Bagh distils pleasures like so many perfumes.
The spirit takes flight and dreams for a moment of the sultans of yesteryear.
Mai 2008
