FLOWERS OF THE WORLD
Flowers of Le Jardin Majorelle
Flowers are not my favourite
When I travel, I don’t usually seek out botanical gardens or gardens of any sort actually. Maybe the reason being in the last 13 years, I always travel in Europe’s winter. I have visited Japan during sakura (cherry blossom) season, but I think I’ve lost all of those digital photos. Maybe I have some in a photo album somewhere?
On my last trip, my daughter and I did a road trip around Morocco. After Casablanca and El Jadida, we arrived in Marrakech. The only thing I wanted to see was Le Jardin Majorelle. On our last day in Marrakech, we visited on the way to Ouarzazate. We didn’t plan on spending the entire day here but it was so beautiful it was hard not to.
Seeing my favourite blue against the greens of the garden was calming and I needed to be calm for the next stage of our trip. The cacti gardens blew me away. I’ve never seen so many varieties of cacti — simply beautiful. I took more photos here in one day than I did the rest of the trip!
The Gardens also house the Berber Museum which Stacey and I both found informative and fascinating. Interestingly, when I went googling to find out when Yves St Laurent bought Le Jardin Majorelle, the first article to pop up said:
“Jardin Majorelle is a colourful, pretty garden in Marrakech. But in all honesty it’s not much more than that and didn’t blow me away.
If you’re tight on time in Marrakech there are plenty of other things to do. That said, if you have a spare hour or two it’s a pleasant enough stroll and only costs a few quid to enter.”
It just goes to show how different people can visit somewhere and have completely different perceptions of it. Apart from the fact that it’s in Marrakech, I’d be happy to live there, but I wouldn’t want to look after the gardens!
The bold cobalt blue, seen in many tiles around Marrakech, inspired French artist Jacques Majorelle to use it extensively in the garden and its buildings and is named after him, bleu Majorelle — Majorelle Blue. Majorelle and his wife lived here from 1923 until their divorce in the 50s. Just goes to show that a beautiful environment is not enough to save a marriage. He returned to France in 1962 after a car accident (those crazy Moroccan drivers) and died in 1963 from injuries received in that accident.
Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé, who first arrived in Morocco in 1966, purchased the Jardin Majorelle in 1980 to save it from destruction by hotel developers. They decided to live in Jacques Majorelle’s villa, which they renamed the Villa Oasis. It truly was an oasis for them — far from the madding crowds of Paris and the fashion scene.
Yves retreated here often to gain inspiration for his fashion ideas and to relax after many a stressful fashion show. There’s also a YSL museum showing his designs over the years. I don’t have photos of any of them, but I’m thinking either photographs weren’t allowed or my phone was flat after taking so many photos in the garden!
If you want to read more about Yves and Pierre’s story, click here. I found it fascinating.
Here are some of the entries into the challenge that I’ve loved reading.
Who knew this even existed? Thank you for sharing, Fiona Y.
I’ll be wearing one at my son’s wedding, Jewel Allen
I’ve been there, Keith Kelley It’s truly an amazing place!
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