36 Hours in Tangier - The New York Times

8/18/2019 36 Hours in Tangier - The New York Times

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3 6 H o u r i n T a n g i e r

By SETH SHERWOOD APRIL 15, 2016

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Tiers of terraces descend to the Mediterranean at the beloved Café Hafa. Credit Daniel Rodrigues for The New York Times

They all rushed to Tangier. From the 1920s to the 1950s, when the

Moroccan port city was a freewheeling “international zone” governed

(barely) by a consortium of mostly European powers, Tangier attracted

expatriates and travelers seeking illicit substances and activities in a palm-

fringed seaside crossroads where Africa almost touches Europe. Barbara

Hutton, the Woolworth heiress, and the billionaire Malcolm Forbes built

palaces and hosted celebrities. Beat writers, from William S. Burroughs to

Paul and Jane Bowles, wrote in a haze of drugs and booze. And the future

enfants terribles of Moroccan literature, Mohamed Choukri

andMohammed Mrabet, stalked the cafes. Reviled, the Moroccan

monarchy let the city decay. By the 1970s Tangier was a seedy has-been.

Today the city is undergoing a turnaround. Prized by King Mohammed VI,

who assumed the throne in 1999, Tangier is building a huge new port, agreen seafront and Africa’s first high-speed train line. Monuments and

museums are getting face-lifts, and the streets of both the centuries-old

Moorish medina and the colonial-era neighborhoods are sprouting

boutique hotels, design shops and Euro-Moroccan restaurants. There’s

even an electro festival, Nuits Sonores Tanger , created in 2013 and held in

October. Couple those with classic draws — long beaches, artisanal goods, a

thriving cafe culture — and Tangier is ripe for a global return.

http://nuits-sonores.com/tanger/


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Boulevard Pasteur, a.k.a. “Le Boulevard,” begins your unpasteurized plunge

into colonial-era Tangier. Lined with Art Nouveau and Art Deco edifices,the bustling thoroughfare is packed with cafes, clothing shops and banks,

as well as a scenic esplanade offering Mediterranean views. Side streets like

Rue Khalid Ibn Oualidbeckon with antiques and souvenir shops, but the

most rewarding stop is Librairie des Colonnes . Owned by Pierre Bergé, the

former partner (in business and in love) of Yves Saint Laurent — a longtime

homeowner in Tangier — the multilingual bookshop stocks essentials for

your Tangier adventure, from street maps to indispensable tomes like Josh

Shoemake’s “Tangier: A Literary Guide for Travellers.”

Nearby, the venerable Gran Cafe de Paris and the hip cafe in the

Cinémathèque de Tanger are windows into the spirit of Tangier, classic

and contemporary. The former is a Gallic-flavored institution that fills with

the (mostly) older generation of Moroccans and longtime foreign residents,

who sip café au lait on banquettes once haunted by Jean Genet and

Tennessee Williams. The cafe inside the Cinémathèque, an independent

movie theater and archive that took over a forlorn old cinema in 2006, is

awash in retro-cool furniture, fresh juices, Moroccan cool cats, arty expats

and free Wi-Fi.

Map data ©2016 Google

F r i d a

http://www.cinemathequedetanger.com/http://www.librairie-des-colonnes.com/


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A photograph of King Mohammed VI beams down from a column in Saveur

de Poisson, a small, rustic restaurant decorated with folkloric art. Perhaps

he can smell the briny bounty, which varies with the season and tides. The

day’s fresh fish offerings might include soup, a sizzling dish of calamari and

monkfish with spinach, brochettes of baby shark, and a grilled sole. The

purple house juice, a mix of pomegranate, fig, carrot and more,

accompanies it all. Two hundred dirhams(about $21) per person.

Le Number One bar in Tangier. Credit Daniel Rodrigues for The New York

Times

Rue Magellan should be renamed Beat Street. Its hotels were favorites of

Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Burroughs, who was a fixture at the

Hotel El Muniriaand its bar, the Tangerinn . The décor has changed (black

leather couches, wall-mounted vinyl LPs) as has the crowd (20-something

Moroccan hipsters), but Burroughs still haunts the spot. His hangdog face

forms a sizable mural, and quotes from him are stenciled on the walls.

These days, Tangier’s expat writers, artists and self-styled deviants

congregate three blocks away at Le Number One . The friendly dive is

festooned with kitsch décor and stocked with Casablanca beer (40

dirhams)and myriad liquors.

Photo

https://www.facebook.com/Restaurant-number-one-tanger-824231850931533/https://www.facebook.com/The-Tangerinn-Pub-168781203167472/


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Café Hafa is almost a century old. Credit Daniel Rodrigues for The New York Times

Another day, another cafe. Before you lose yourself in the labyrinthine

medina, luxuriate along the coast at the open-air Café Hafa . A Tangier

icon, the almost-century-old cafe is made up of tiers of whitewashed

balconies that cascade down a steep hillside toward the Mediterranean,

opening panoramic views of the sea and, beyond, Spain. Sip sweet tea with

crushed mint leaves (7 dirhams) and gaze at that long-lost Moorish

treasure across the strait: Andalusia.

Apostles of Paul (Bowles) can worship the author of “The Sheltering Sky” at

the museum of the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan

Studies . The mansion was given to the United States government by the

sultan in the early19th century and long served as a diplomatic

headquarters. Today elegant rooms house exhibits related to the American

(and European) presence here over the centuries. In addition to a gallery

with works by Cecil Beaton, Oskar Kokoschkaand others, the museum

displays Bowles’s possessions, first editions and correspondence, along

with photos and fan mail. Admission 20 dirhams.

S a t u r d a

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If Jane Austen opened a Moroccan restaurant, it might resemble Café à

l’Anglaise . The twee tearoom channels the spirit of both Northanger Abbey

and North Africa with its mix of European antiques (gilt-edged sofas,

shelves of china) and traditional Moroccan design (geometric stained-glass

panels). Run by a charming Moroccan family, the cozy spot serves up

chicken tajine (a long-simmered stew with olives and candied lemon) and

an even sweeter pastilla (a phyllo pastry packed with diced chicken and

topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon). For dessert, the candied

orange peel is a syrupy, sticky, sun-soaked delight. Lunch for two is around

250 dirhams.

A salesman of a shop on Rue Sebou. Credit Daniel Rodrigues for The New York

Times

The splintering lanes of the medina district beg for a GPS: Global Power

Shopper.These tiny arteries are filled with stalls and stores selling artisanal

goods. Rue Sebou and Rue des Almohades are havens of traditional items,

but the streets in and around the casbah, the walled hilltop fortress, now

brim with shops of Moorish-modern design. Rumi 1436 specializes in

naturally scented soy wax candles in classic Marrakesh tea glasses. Where

SoHo meets the Sahara, Las Chicas is a sprawling emporium stocked with

cushions, lanterns, massage oils,tasseled towels and handbags. For big

budgets, the eponymous designer Laure Welfling’s boutique offers

kaleidoscopic velvety caftans, embroidered evening dresses and other

boho-chic garments.

Follow your ears immediately next door to the unmarked storefront across

http://www.facebook.com/laschicasdetangerhttps://www.facebook.com/RUMI-1436-484578031699829/https://www.facebook.com/sobritishcafe/


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from the Kasbah Museum (undergoing renovations), where live music

erupts at 6:30. The tiny space, lined with embroidered banquettes, is the

clubhouse of Les Fils du Détroit , a team of master musicians. The Sons of

the Strait are now old enough to be grandfathers — after some 40 years of

playing teardrop-shaped ouds, tubular drums and violins together — but

their free nightly jam sessions always sound fresh as they meld the

melodies of Morocco and Spain in an evocative Arabo-Andalusian fusion.

(Donations appreciated.)

Whether you’re planning a romantic dinner or an opulent banquet, the

restaurant of the exquisite Nord-Pinus hotel can accommodate. The

connected salons gleam with sultanic décor — marble columns, chiseled

plaster arches, inlaid mirrors — and the kitchen turns out fine-tuned

Moroccan classics. Starters include grilled sardine fillets with diced tomato

and onion; entrees range from grilled and baked fish to a sublime slow-

cooked joint of lamb with stewed fruits and almonds. The house red, a

Moroccan vintage, is a smooth accompaniment. Dinner is 350 dirhams a

person, without wine.

You half expect to glimpse Humphrey Bogart in a white dinner jacket as

you enter the chic, neo-Moorish lounge of El Morocco Club , a fetching

cafe-restaurant-bar. The speakeasyish space feels like a 21st-century

“Casablanca” set teeming with international businessmen, jet-set couples

and gilded Tangier youth instead of Nazis and spies. A corner D.J. spins

everything from jazz to Moroccan pop, while bartenders serve up mojitos

(110 dirhams) and Moroccan red wine (60 dirhams). Still awake? Direct your caravan to Morocco Palace, a classic cabaret with elaborate geometric

tilework and a dance floor of flashing colored lights. The sultry dance hall

glows as red as the inferno and throbs with the neo-snake-charmer beats

from live electric orchestras.

Photo

http://elmoroccoclub.ma/http://nord-pinus-tanger.com/https://www.facebook.com/lesfilsdudetroittanger/


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Moroccan spices. Credit Daniel Rodrigues for The New York Times

According to legend, after separating Europe from Africa, Hercules took a

snooze at Les Grottes d’Hercule, a pair of caverns along the ocean to the

west of Tangier. (A “grand taxi” from central Tangier should cost between

200 and 300 dirhams, roundtrip.) Recently spruced up, the adjacent

grottoes offer somewhat opposite experiences. One is a carnival-like

pageant of traditional musicians and gift shops(admission, 5 dirhams). The

other (free) is a dark complex of caves with a huge,strange aperture —

shaped like Africa, amazingly — that opens to the crashing Atlantic. Peering

at the ocean through its jagged outline, you are truly at the crossroads of

the continents.

S u n d a

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Built in 1880, the Grand Hotel Villa de France (Corner of Avenue

Angleterre and Rue Hollande; 212-5-39-33-31-11;

www. leroyal.com/giftcard/ghvdf) was Tangier’s top luxury palace before

falling into ruin. But after an ambitious renovation, the 58-room hotel

reopened in 2014. Doubles from 1,225 dirhams.

In the medina, numerous traditional mansions have been converted into

boutique B&Bs. Dar Nour (20, rue Gourna, Casbah; 212-6-62-11-27-24;

darnour.com) has 10 rooms and suites decorated in chic Euro-Moroccan

décor and a sumptuous salon that hosts a nightly aperitif. Doubles from 59

euros.

To be near the medina’s bustling, cafe-filled, boutique-loaded main square,

Le Petit Socco, Dar Nakhla Naciria (12w, rue Naciria; 212-6-07-21-69-

56; facebook.com/DarNakhlaNaciria) is a simple, friendly, five-room B&B

with a panoramic rooftop terrace. Doubles from 50 euros.

L o d g i n g
http://www.facebook.com/DarNakhlaNaciria%29CQhttp://www.leroyal.com/giftcard/ghvdf%29CQhttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/us/politics/bernie-sanders-rome.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/us/politics/obama-set-top-boxes.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-warns-ofeconomic-fallout-if-congress-passes-9-11-bill.html

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