48 hours in casablanca

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48 HOURS IN
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Shipshape: the
seaside resort of
Menton Axiom
CASABLANCA
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
TRAVELLER’S GUIDE
GETTING THERE
ya
Ro
I T A LY
A
Linda Cookson
FRANCE
travelled with
l
p
s
Inntravel (01653
617 906;
www.inntravel.
F R A N C E
co.uk) for her
Bévera
Breil-sur-Roya
walking break. A
Piène
Haute
four-night “From the
Alps to the Riviera”
Sospel
ALPEStrip offers two nights
MARITIMES
Menton
in Sospel followed
MONACO
by two nights in
Nice
Menton at £298Villefranche-sur-Mer
r
£328 per person,
zu
inclusive of taxi and
’ A Me diterrane an
d
train transfers to
Sea
and from Nice-Ville
20 miles
rail station, walking
notes, and luggage
transfers. You can reach
STAYING THERE
Nice from London
The Auberge Provençale in
Waterloo in nine or 10
Sospel (00 33 4 93 04
hours via Paris (involving a 00 31) offers double
transfer across the French rooms at ¤126 (£90),
capital) or Marne-la-Vallée with half board, or ¤84
(with a direct connection)
(£60) with breakfast only.
on Eurostar (08705 186
186; www.eurostar.com).
MORE INFORMATION
Alternatively, Nice-Côte
Sospel tourist office is at
d’Azur airport has flights
19 Avenue Jean Médecin
from the UK airports, and
06389 Sospel (00 33 4
a quick bus connection
93 04 15 80; www.sospelwith Nice-Ville station.
tourisme.com).
Morocco’s largest city is an alluring alternative
to the usual suspects, with mosques, a medina,
a replica Rick’s Café – and a nearby beach,
says Simon Calder
Cô
te
3
2
WHY GO NOW?
Early summer is an
excellent time to visit
Casablanca. You get a
gentle introduction to the
combination of chaos and
charm that characterises
Morocco – and easy
access to the ocean.
As Morocco warms up,
the relative attraction of
its largest city increases
thanks to the coastal
breezes. And visitors to
Casablanca are likely to
find fewer hassles than in
Marrakech and Tangier.
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9
7
taking 33 minutes for a
fare of 20 dirhams
(Dh20/£1.30). If you
choose a cab instead, the
fare will probably depend
on your bargaining skills;
anything below Dh160
(£10) is a good result for
the half-hour journey.
GET YOUR BEARINGS
The kernel of the city is
the walled Medina,
though don’t expect
anything as exotic as
Marrakech; the small,
kidney-shaped area may
strike you as either
pleasingly clean and
manageable, or oversanitised. It is, though,
brimming with life and
easy to navigate.
Fanning out to the
south is the modern city,
where you can find some
Art Deco architecture –
and also some
pedestrianised areas that
offer respite from the
thundering traffic in
Morocco’s commercial
capital. To the west, the
Corniche provides a
superb antidote to city
life, with a formidable
beach and excellent
restaurants.
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8
4
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CHECK IN
The beautiful Riad Dar
Itrit (2) is a long way
from the action, at 9 Rue
de Restinga (00 212 22 360
258; www.daritrit.ma). But
it is well worth the detour:
a small and delicately
furnished property with
just three rooms; each
costs ¤80 (£56) for two,
including breakfast.
For a comfortable and
rather more central – if
corporate – experience,
try the four-star Hotel
Rivoli (3) at 44 Boulevard
d’Anfa (00 212 22 434 700;
www.hotelrivolicasablanc
a.com), where a double
room costs Dh880 (£55)
including breakfast.
An excellent budget
alternative is the Hotel
Guynemer (4) at 2 Rue
Mohamed Belloul (00 212
22 275 764), which neatly
combines functional
bedrooms with public
rooms lavishly furnished
in riad style. A double
room costs Dh400 (£25)
including breakfast.
WINDOW SHOPPING
If you are serious about
buying local products, and
do not wish to test your
powers of negotiation, go
to the Exposition
Nationale d’Artisanat
(5) at 3 Avenue Hassan II
(00 212 22 267 064), where
prices for crafts are fixed.
It opens only in the
morning, 8am-noon daily.
But the Medina is well
worth a wander: it is
liveliest early in the
morning, when the
cacophony of commerce
provides an intense
soundtrack for browsing a
modest collection of
handicrafts.
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TAKE A HIKE
The southern end of the
Medina opens on to the
Place des Nations Unies
(6), one of the key hubs of
Casablanca, where the
contrast between
(relatively) ancient and
modern is evident. Walk
south along Avenue
Hassan II, one of the
broad boulevards left
behind by the French
colonists. About 500m
south of the place stands
a beautiful Art Deco post
office (7), where even the
letterboxes (“Etranger –
Maroc – Casablanca”) are
beautifully tiled. The
modern city’s core is
Place Mohammed V (8),
a vast open space flanked
by the original city hall,
Palace of Justice and
French Consulate.
Walk across the
gardens to the west, turn
left down to the Place de
l’Unite Africaine and
continue south along
women in sunglasses and headscarves being driven around
in sports cars, to suspect that this section of the trip was
going to be a bit different from eating baguettes on goat
tracks. But nothing had prepared me for the extraordinary
vista that confronted us three kilometres out of Sospel, when
Jean-Pierre dropped us at the setting-off point for the walk
(some 1,000 metres above sea level).
It was breathtaking. A whole urban stretch of the
French Riviera – extending from Nice, through Monaco, and
into Italy – was spread out below us. It could hardly have
been more different from the people-free landscapes of our
earlier walks, but it was equally as thrilling.
I got in touch with my inner Sixties starlet, put on my
shades, and prepared to join the Beautiful People (although
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I’m honour-bound to confess that this spiritual shift provided the perfect excuse for completing the last leg of the
walk by taxi.)
We were staying at Menton, a coastal resort with lovely gardens, some stately Belle Epoque buildings and – to
the east of the modern centre – a charming Old Town climbing back from the harbour. But now that I had the sand between my toes, so to speak, it was time to hang up the hiking
boots and head for somewhere a little more glamorous.
The chic seaside town of Villefranche-sur-Mer, less than
half an hour away on the coastal train, fitted the bill. So many
films have been shot there – including Cocteau’s 1950 classic Orphée – that it’s a miracle the place doesn’t charge an
entry fee. Its hip little harbour-front has made it a playground
for rock stars. Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg hung
out at Villa Nellcôte when the Rolling Stones were there
recording Exile on Main Street in the early 1970s. More recently, sightings of Bono have been reported at the waterfront cafés. And Tina Turner, it is said, has a villa high above
the town.
Sadly, there was no sign of Tina on this, the last day of
our adventure. But everything else was a delight. Villefranche is that rare thing: a place that manages to be fashionable but still remain remarkably unspoilt. Built on a
wooded slope, complete with citadel and picturesque old
town, it circles one of the prettiest and most colourful harbours in the Mediterranean. The houses on the quayside
form a luminous mosaic of Italianate ochres, pinks and oranges – the hot, bright colours sharply offset by contrasting shutters. There are plenty of expensive Italian
restaurants by the quayside. But it’s (just about) a working town. Fishermen still haul in catches and attend to nets
on the waterfront.
And there are still strange and magical places to be found.
The vaulted 13th-century Rue Obscure runs like a tunnel
beneath the town and is one of the oddest streets in France
– more like something from a North African kasbah than
a European port. It’s covered for more than half its length.
As we emerged into the sunlight from its darkened archways I felt, just for a moment, that we were back in the mountains. But this time we were turning not upwards but
downwards, where the blue of the Mediterranean was glinting seductively at the end of an alley and the smell of fresh
fish in frying pans was calling us to lunch. We’d arrived.
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TOUCH DOWN
Casablanca is the hub of
the Moroccan air network,
but the only airport in the
UK that has direct flights
to the city is Heathrow.
British Airways (0870
850 9 850; www.ba.com)
and Royal Air Maroc
(020-7439 4361;
www.royalairmaroc.com)
compete, with fares of
£189 available for travel
later in May through
www.opodo.co.uk.
Connections from other
UK airports are available
via Paris Charles de
Gaulle; a typical return
fare from Birmingham
and Manchester is £290.
The airport is 20km out
of town; the cheapest way
to get there is on the train
link direct from the
airport to Casablanca
Voyageurs station (1),
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THE INDEPENDENT
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Graphics: Rob Brooks
Summit
to seaside
100 miles Strait of SPAIN Mediterranean
Gibraltar
Sea
Tangier
ATLANTIC
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OCEAN
Rabat
Casablanca
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Fez
MOROCCO
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Marrakech
s M
la
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A
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un
ain
s
A F RI CA
Opulent wonder: Hassan
II Mosque dominates the
Casablanca skyline Axiom
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The Alpes-Maritimes region in southern France is perfect
for walkers: start at the top of a mountain and head for the
2
coast. Linda Cookson finds charm and glamour
en route
F
or three blissful hours we had walked across
the mountain tracks of France’s Roya Valley
without seeing a single other person. The river
snaking far below us like a ribbon had been
the only guide we needed. And now here we
were, 650 metres above sea level, arriving at
a village that was perched like an eagle’s nest on a precipitous rock face.
It was noon. We emerged from a dark passageway in the
mountainside into an explosion of bright light on ancient
stone, and a blaze of window boxes and tubs full of
marigolds. Blinking like moles, we looked around. This was
obviously the village square. But – here was the strange
thing – the place was deserted. Everything was still and
silent under the midday sun – the houses shuttered, the
crooked alleyways eerily empty. Only an upturned toy tricycle and a child’s pavement game drawn in different
coloured chalks across the flagstones gave a sign of any
human presence.
Negotiating a crooked corner of steep stone staircases,
we climbed higher. We were now on a balcony square at the
very top of the village – this time presided over by a grand
and graceful church with a Baroque bell tower. Again, there
wasn’t another soul in sight. But the village’s invisible inhabitants had been carefully tending the scene. The
hedges around a small war memorial were well clipped and
watered, and real daisies had been intermingled into a pot
of white plastic lilies. And – lo and behold – a table and two
chairs were waiting for us. It was as though someone had
known we were coming.
How much more encouragement did we need? Claiming our places at the table, we lost no time in unpacking
our rucksacks and settled down happily to the most pleasant of picnics. Setting out earlier that morning from the
mountain town of Breil-sur-Roya, we’d bought some boursotous – local pastries filled with spinach, leeks, rice, cheese
and anchovy paste – to go with the obligatory baguette,
cheese and bottle of wine. At best we’d hoped to find a bench
to sit on. And now we were feasting like royalty in a magical private restaurant. There was even a ruined castle on
a promontory just beyond us.
The name of the village, we later found out, was Piène
Haute. Balanced on the spine of a narrow ridge, it’s one of
the most picture-perfect of the villages perchés (literally,
“perched villages”) that populate this area of France. The
region is the Alpes-Maritimes, where the spectacular
9 mountain peaks of the southern Alps roll majestirugged
cally down to the sea. And that was the route – more or less
– that we were following in our walk.
The journey looked ideal for novice (not to mention lazy)
walkers such as ourselves – although, as we were learning, descending from mountain to sea doesn’t mean that
it’s downhill all the way. The final ascent to the vantage point
at Piène Haute was quite a climb. But, on the whole, the
terrain is surprisingly gentle, with route maps and clearly signed walking tracks on hand to guide you through silvery olive groves and woodland gorges. The climate is
famously temperate – from spring onwards, walkers will
find themselves bathed in warmth and light, surrounded
by clouds of butterflies and beguiled by the perfume of endless banks of wild flowers and herbs. But, above all else,
it’s the contrast you experience that is exhilarating. The
route takes you from cool mountain villages right down to
the palm-fringed beaches of the Côte d’Azur.
The cool mountain village in which we found ourselves
next was some six kilometres from Piène Haute. Pretty
Sospel, a medieval settlement, is about 350 metres above
sea level and straddles the Bévéra river. Its buildings are
painted in pink and yellow, the traditional colours of Liguria – and a reminder of how close this whole region is to
the Italian border.
Sospel was once one of the most important staging posts
along the old Route du Sel (“Salt Road”) – the long mule
track that formed the trading route between Nice and Turin
until well into the 18th century. The village’s main street,
which was part of the old road, still has the circular drinking trough that was provided for weary animals as they
passed through. The picturesque medieval bridge across
the river was formerly a toll bridge.
Sospel is a crossroads for three of France’s Grandes Randonnées, the country’s excellent network of national footpaths. Its cobbled streets, church squares, old stone
fountains and colourful houses – many with elaborate trompe
l’oeil façades – make it a charming destination in itself. But
it’s also an excellent place to base yourself for overnight
stays as part of a walking trip.
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Jean-Pierre Giannini has run the Auberge Provençale,
up on the hillside above the village, for 10 years, and is a
mine of local information. His small hotel is fabulously quirky
– he trained as an artist in Dijon, and the walls are crammed
with his canvases (many of them, rather bizarrely, straight
copies of notable 19th- and 20th-century paintings). Joining us at a table under a chestnut tree on his lovely terrace,
he happily answered our questions about Piène Haute. Mostly it’s now a holiday retreat for wealthy city folk with weekend homes there, he explained. But one or two locals remain,
and it is they who keep the village so beautifully tended.
The following day, the sea beckoned, and we began our
descent to the coast. I’d never been to the French Riviera,
but had seen enough film clips from the Sixties of glamorous
Boulevard Brahim
Roudani to the amazing
Villa des Arts (9). This
art deco mansion (00 212
22 295 087) feels lived-in –
yet is filled with art. The
collection changes
regularly, and usually
features modern
Moroccan artists. It opens
11am-7pm from Tuesday
to Saturday, Dh10 (£0.60).
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LUNCH ON THE RUN
The Central Market (10)
is full of produce, some of
which ends up at the
collection of cafés
immediately to the west,
where you can pick up
chicken, chips and salad
for Dh20 (£1.25).
CULTURAL
AFTERNOON
The second-biggest
mosque in the world
(after the al-Haram
mosque in Mecca)
dominates the skyline in
Casablanca. Hassan II
Mosque (11) (00 212 22
440 448) is a Nineties
structure perched on
the Atlantic shore. The
mosque, said to have cost
£400m to build, is
breathtaking in terms of
its decoration (opulent)
and scale (vast) – the
prayer hall can hold
25,000 worshippers and
it’s said that St Paul’s
Cathedral could fit inside.
It is also the only working
mosque in Morocco that
can be entered by nonMuslims. Respectfully
dressed visitors can take
a tour at 2pm daily except
Fridays (there are also
tours at 9, 10 and 11am);
price Dh100 (£6.50).
Alternatively, you are free
to admire the external
craftsmanship at any time.
AN APERITIF
Type “Rick’s Café” into
Google and you get half a
million results. But this is
the one that counts. Of all
the gin joints, in all the
towns, in all the world,
walk into this one.
Rick’s Café (12), on the
northern edge of the
Medina at 248 Boulevard
Sour Jdid (00 212 22 27 42
07; www.rickscafe.ma)
replicates one of the most
memorable locations in
cinema history. A former
US diplomat, Kathy
Kriger, set up a company
called The Usual
Suspects and created this
modern homage to the
movie, going back to the
original studio designs to
get the details right. The
pianist will play “As Time
Goes By” while you sip a
Casablanca beer or the
house cocktail: Sour Djid
(named after the street
address), a whiskey sour
with red vermouth.
DINING WITH THE
LOCALS
You could stay on at
Rick’s for a good meal in
engaging surroundings,
but for award-winning
nouvelle marocaine
cuisine, head for the sea.
On a promontory out at
the end of the Corniche,
A Ma Bretagne (13) (00
212 22 397 979;
www.amabretagne.com)
has a splendid location,
and serves imaginative
dishes along with
excellent wines.
SUNDAY MORNING:
GO TO CHURCH
The Cathedrale du Sacre
Coeur (14) on Boulevard
Rachidi is a rare example
of an art deco cathedral;
the 1930 design is a
startling structure both in
terms of its soaring, if
austere, lines, and its very
existence amidst a big
Islamic city.
OUT TO BRUNCH
For a touch more French
style, Patisserie de
l’Opéra (15) at 50
Boulevard du 11 Janvier
is a classic bakery with
good, strong coffee and
meltingly fresh bread. It
opens 6am-1.30pm at
weekends (to 6pm during
the week).
TAKE A RIDE
When the heat of the city
gets too much, grab a
petit taxi for the Dh50 (£3)
ride out to la Corniche
(15), the grand seaside
boulevard 5km west of
town. You can wander
beside the Atlantic, watch
(or join in) impromptu
beach football matches,
and pick your ideal
seafood restaurants.
A WALK IN THE PARK
Pick of the city’s open
spaces is Parc de la
Ligue Arabe (16), an
expansive public garden
filled with palms – and
plenty of cafés.
WRITE A POSTCARD
Place Mohammed V (8)
has a huge fountain that is
dazzlingly illuminated at
night. Settle down amid
the dusk hubbub to
compose your thoughts.
Alternatively, stroll
through the Medina to the
small garden (17) at the
northern end.
ICING ON THE CAKE
Douche with panache at
Casablanca’s best baths.
Hammam Zaiani (18) 00
212 22 319 695;
www.hammamziani.ma),
at 59 rue Abou Rakrak,
provides steamy
relaxation from 7am to
10pm daily. Basic
admission starts at
Dh35 (£2.15).
Additional research by
Leanne Meaney and
Sam Gammon