Echo's of a past life

Reading the news feed for Taroudant and it's much too much what I retired here to escape. On Tuesday a local Iman or Fiqu decided to celebrate the Moulud (the birthday of the Prophet) by raping a 9 year old girl sent to him for religious instruction. Even worse for a graduate of the internet twins saga a couple were arrested last week for purchasing a newborn baby for 750 Dh (less than £60).

At least here the culprits are arrested rather than there being a religious cover-up; and full marks to the Registrar who spotted the false birth story.

Meanwhile different websites give weather forecasts for next week as consistently under 20C ranging down to 15C or consistently over 20C ranging up to 25c. I'll choose the latter please.

From the Walls

The Cellist and the Doctor had evening flights home so we spent the day around town, looking round the Kasbah and letting them do some shopping . They were very restrained, the Cellist buying only some jewellery  for her Grand-daughters' Xmas and the Doctor just some coffee, dates and apricots; quite a contrast to the Quaker. We went up on the walls by the Kasbah gate. Sadly the derelict palace where the storks used to nest has been demolished so there were none but we manage to get some good views of the town and  snow on the Atlas.

The Doctor's Sketches

We had been wondering about the Doctor as we had never met him before although we'd met his mother several times. He turned out to be a most congenial, if somewhat energetic, guest. One of his hobbies is painting and although he hadn't brought his watercolours he had brought the basics to make pen and ink sketches. He had fallen in love with Bab Taghout at the end of our road immediately but found an equal interest in the other gates on his evening run round the walls. (5miles. I'd told him 5km but what's a unit between friends?)
So, the next day off he went on Beloved's bike and made some more quick 20min/1/2hour sketches. Sadly he makes them in a sort of annual diary so I wasn't able to blag one.

Claudio Bravo: The Paintings

Bravo's early work was as a portraitist but the a relatively few portraits at the Palais, several copies of his drawings of Hassan II and Mohammed VI, an oil painting of his friend Charles Forbes, a drawing of Paul Bowles

 and a group portrait of Bashir's football team in Tangier.

He took the daughter of the estate carpenter as his model and it is in these posed pictures we see his pre-occupation with colour.

He made some recurring themes exploring colour, draped material,

 shanks of wool,

 still lives,

 babouches.

Latterly his most sought after paintings were of packages and there are many examples of these.

Claudio Bravo; The Collections

Claudio collected various pieces of art. Some are placed around the house and gardens such as the classical statuary,

 Bronze figures

 and Mexican figures,

instruments anddinosaur skulls,often paired with his drawings of them

 and Malian masks,

and stepladder

 but he built a Kouba-like  showroom specifically to display his collection of early Moroccan ceramics. On his death the kouba affiliations seemed appropriate so he is buried there with a plain Moroccan-style gravestone.

Claudio Bravo Gardens and Grounds

 The grounds of the palais are extensive. They grow all the vegetables served in the restaurant, courgettes, peppers tomatoes, beetroot and particularly aubergines. They served three different aubergine preparations in their salad including a wonderful preparation of tiny aubergines cooked in a syrup with sesame seeds. You can't buy aubergines that small in the shops - they must be the thinnings. There are acres of orchards,mostly oranges but apples and pears too. The standard visit includes a drive round the grounds in a pony and trap but we declined on account of my allergies and the doctor in the party being on holiday. 

There is a huge lake come reservoir with an exact copy of the pavilion in the Menara Gardens Marrakesh which is used as the restaurant.

Nearer the house there are gardens  mostly of cactus, aloes, agaves and palms but some grasses and other plants.

There is a lap pool to die for

 and a rather wonderful sculpture.