A Personal Hammam: From Phyllis in Morocco - Part 4

Phyllis writes:

The sketch above is of the room just outside the hammam and the massage room. All day long the fire was being fed with sticks from two great piles that had somehow arrived outside the door of Dar Louisa the day before. The fireplace is underneath the room for the hammam and opens onto the patio. Suzie and Kate were in the hammam while I was getting a full body massage. Suzie and Kate came out with exclamations of delight while I was on the massage table so I was pretty sure I was in for a treat. When my massage was done (ahhhhh) I went into a small room that you enter before going into the steam room, and Barbara and Fatima both chorused "come on in!". I walked up two steps, opened the swinging doors and found myself in a small room filled with steam with a bench at one end and two sinks in the floor on the other. Barb was sitting on the bench and Fatima was scrubbing Barb's arm. I sat beside Barb and waited my turn. The light in the room was very dim, the steam was thick but not suffocating, and everything and everyone looked beautiful as in a dream. 

The fire had been heating the water in the sinks and making the steam. The wood had a sweet fragrance. The scrubbing process was in several stages and I doubt I can get them right. Perhaps the first scrub with with argon soap....arms, legs, back and front. the second was while sitting on a short stool and was the exfoliation done with scrubber mitts and some other substance, then we were smeared with a special mud, and then finally another wash and rinse. Lots of throwing bowls of water over our bodies and our heads. I don't know why splashing with bowls of warm water is so pleasurable but it sure is. Lots of massaging as well as washing, lots of laughing and chatting. It was a most lovely experience. If anyone ever offers you.....by all means take it. The cost? 100 dirham (approximately $12.50.) 

After all the women had been thoroughly washed, scrubbed and oiled, Abdililah took Bill in and gave him his hammam. And THEN he served us a beautiful meal of turkey breast slices rolled around vegetables with a fresh tomato and cilantro sauce. Before this a pureed soup of vegetables (squash and sweet potato). For dessert we had a divine concoction of avocado, yogurt and honey pureed very smooth and topped with something like creme de menthe. Needless to say we all went to bed quite early totally relaxed and sated. We couldn't quit feeling ourselves because it felt like we had new skin. And so that, my dears, is the story of a personal hammam. It is customary in Morocco do do this once a week, either in a public or private setting.

Barb's Sketches from Dar Louisa

Here are Barb Barry's latest sketches from Morocco. She writes:

Phyllis just walked into my "office," saying "no sketch, no can capture the way this place FEELS." Well, we're doing our best. Last nite, after dinner we had mint tea and I loved seeing the tea pot and glasses on a wicker chest before beautiful African cushions and tapestries. I wanted to capture TEXTURE. 

 This morning, up before breakfast, I wanted to capture DIMENSIONS so I sketched the swimming pool in our interior courtyard. 

Today we'll walk to the town of Tourandannt, see the souks, meet some locals. The Moroccans are super sweet and accepting. The women wear head scarves for traditional reasons, not religious. The Tourandannt women wear blue haj's (spelling?)... head scarfs and very colorful patterned caftans.

From Phyllis in Morocco - Part 3

More sketches from Phyllis in Morocco. They are now at Dar Louisa, in the walled city of Taroundant.

Phyllis' room and balcony

Poolside at Dar Louisa

Some excerpts from her delicious daily reports:

This place is so beautiful it is hard to describe. There are jasmine vines and lots of other vegetation on the walls. The birds come into the courtyard at night to sleep and make a great wonderful racket. In the morning they wake up and start to cheep and sing about the same time as the first call to prayer which is around 5:30. I was too excited to sleep last night so slept very little. But who cares? I can nap or not.....whatever. Adbelilah is our chef. For about $18.00 a day he will make us 3 meals a day. We asked for 2 meals with a small snack of fruit and stuff for the third. We are eating everything that is put before us.....including vegetables and fruits, we are drinking the tap water, and we have only seen real toilets (no squatters), so we are traveling very first class. All of this because Suzie and Bill traded our casa in Mexico for these delightful riads. Fatima is our housekeeper, and she quietly goes about keeping everything beautiful and clean. It's a bit decadent, I know....but oh so delightful. This riad also has a private hammam. We can be scrubbed, manicured, pedicured and massaged. Which we will do. Anyway.....I will for sure. We have mint tea everywhere and often. Everyone wants our money, but they are mostly very, very nice about going about getting it.

Taroudant is a walled village. The walls are 800 years old. The tops of the walls look just like the castle walls in fairy tales. The merchants here do not hassle us like they did in Marrakech Still everything must be bargained for.The climate is more temperate here. The days are warm but not hot, the evenings pleasantly cool, and the nights not cold but cool enough to use a blanket and sleep well. Taroudant is much more tranquil than Marrakech, fewer tourists, easier to mange, still busy will all manner of vehicles. Lots of bicycles. Fridays are the day of prayer and the day for cous-cous. The shops were closed at 1:00 today for people to go to the mosques. We could hear the prayers throughout the city and from Dar Louisa. After prayers it is traditional to go home for cour-cous. Adbelilah made delicous vegetable soup for dinner, followed by Moroccan cous-cous smothered in vegetables with a small amount of lamb. Dessert was pears poached in a light sauce flavored with allspice. After we had a fire and mint tea in the salon. I'm feeling very, very fortunate, pampered, lucky and happy. This is a real vacation. So different from what I imagined or expected.

Never, ever have I experienced the sort of exquisite care, food, attention to detail as we have at Dar Louisa. I am almost embarrassed to tell about it. Abdelilah makes all of our meals, serves us drinks by the pool, builds fires for us in the evening in the downstairs salon, took us on a walking tour today and will take us to an oasis tomorrow. While Abdelilah is taking such care of us Fatima is making our beds, doing our laundry, sweeping, and such things. All of this is cheerfully done.

From Phyllis in Morocco - Part 2

More fabulous sketches from Phyllis in Marrakech!

 Phyllis writes: So far I like this one best this is one of the sitting rooms in our riad. Today we move to a new riad in a small village.

Barb and I sat in a cafe yesterday and sketched. Very hard because things are moving so fast there. I would have loved to have gotten all the push carts and motorbikes and donkey carts and and and..........great fun. 

What a great adventure. I so wish I could be there, too!

Barb's Sketches from Morocco

From Barb Barry in Morocco:  

Here are two sketches from our gorgeous 800 year old home, Dar Allaimoun. A two story house, with a central dining room opened to the sky. Balconies, climbing flowering vines ... birds cheerfully chirp as they come home to nest at sun fall. No windows otherwise... a real fortress. Colorful tiles everywhere ... floors, walls, fountains... fanciful Moroccan lamps hanging from the ceilings, a rooftop deck with outdoor sleeping. Sweet, quiet neighborhood ... all the houses are fortresses with heavy ornate doors, near the souks in the medina. Lovingly cared for by beautiful Morrocan housekeeper, Fouzia.

First Sketch from Morocco

Phyllis sent me her first sketch from Morocco. They are staying in a villa in Marrakech. She writes:

This is one of several sitting areas in our 3 floors and a roof terrace riad. It's hot, the birds are singing, supper is nearly ready, we've heard one call to prayer and will go out into this very beautiful city when it cools down. The sketching opportunities are endless and gorgeous.

I'm so jealous!