In March 2023, my husband Russell and I toured Morocco along with two other couples who are good friends of ours. The country is beautiful and vibrant, while the people are warm and welcoming.

 

One of our favorite places in Morocco was Marrakech. This painting depicts the rear exit of the Pierre Bergé Museum of Berber Arts (on left) at Majorelle Garden along with the museum gift shop across from it. I bought the intense blue paint used in the painting, known as “Majorelle blue,” at the museum gift shop and felt quite fortunate to find it, as otherwise it would have been extremely difficult to recreate that brilliant deep blue color.

 

The garden was created over time beginning in 1919 by Jacques Majorelle (1886-1962), an expatriate French painter. After Majorelle’s death, the garden fell into disrepair until 1980, when it was rescued by fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his business/romantic partner Pierre Bergé. Saint Laurent passed away in 2008 and his ashes were spread throughout the garden. In 2011, Bergé created the museum dedicated to Amazigh art and culture, for which he had an enormous respect and interest. The Amazigh are the indigenous people of Morocco, but the English instead referred to all indigenous people of North Africa as "Berbers," derived from the Arabic word “barbar,” meaning barbarian. The museum is housed in the modernist villa built in the 1930s where Saint Laurent and Bergé lived at Majorelle. Bergé died in 2017 and a foundation now maintains the garden and museum. There also is a fabulous small Yves Saint Laurent Museum adjacent to Majorelle. The garden and two museums are well worth visiting.