…”She left one day in a relative way and came back the previous night.”

And that is how I’ll tackle this gap in posts. The days have been packed with activity and when we stop my body stops! Today the group of culinary travelers is off on an adventure to Essaouira and this writer can hardly even find low gear. I am seated in a small alcove at the entrance of one of the houses on the beautiful garden property of Jnane Tamsna where we are all staying. Today, for me, is a day of rest. And with a few short posts I’ll work my way back to the day we left Casablanca.

Chef Joanne Weir is a bundle of energy, enthusiasm, and full of excitement for adventure. On Sunday for example, although we did not begin our activity until 10:00 AM, we were non-stop until dinnertime at 8:00 PM. And the bus for Essaouira left at 8:00 AM sharp this morning. Sunday we made couscous the local way that it is done in Morocco—it is a lengthy process, worth every step along the way from grain to mouth. We devoured it for lunch. Joanne Weir posted a photo of it on her Facebook page. Joanne Weir Facebook

A quick refresh and we hopped on a bus, hurried past the camel pasture into Marrakech to tour Le Jardin Majorelle, two museums, two gift shops and onto the bus again, across the Medina to a Herboristerie—home of spices and all things good for healing made from herbs and oils. Then everyone went to the square in the middle of the Medina to experience the carnival-like atmosphere that is present there all the time, but even more so as lights come on and evening energizes the vendors and local visitors. I hope some of the culinary travelers will comment on their experiences there. A piece of me is still in the Jardin Majorelle. Later on in this adventure I shall revisit the site—maybe for an entire afternoon,

Marrakech is where Yves St Laurent spent much of his time and the artist Majorelle was a source of inspiration for color and design for the majority of his clothing collections. Jacques Majorelle was an Orientalist painter and it was he who built the beautiful garden which you see in the photographs on this post. When he died in 1962, Yves St Laurent (YSL) eventually purchased and restored the gardens. The line to enter was long, long, long yesterday. In an instant we were in with tickets purchased ahead of time that Joanne Weir picked up when we arrived.

Our guide Mustapha provided a running art history dialogue as he tried to keep sixteen of us all headed in the right direction, balancing time for photos and the daily schedule so that we were able to see garden and both the YSL Museum and the Berber Museum that are within the confines of the garden. Mustapha is brilliant, gentle, full of history and wore the most gorgeous indigo colored sweater that I coveted yesterday. He kept us together, on schedule, and most of all, immersed in the history of our environs. We were joined by the beautiful and kind-hearted Sophia, who was dressed in a soft blue sweater and yellow slacks—in keeping with many people here who are in heart and soul connected with the Ukraine. Color is the symbol of solidarity.