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The legendary - they live/lived in Marrakech - the Friends of Marrakech

Jacques MAJOREL: 1st arrival. Born in Nancy, Jacques Majorelle grew up in the midst of the Art Nouveau movement. On of the leading figures of such movement was his father. Majorelle studied in Paris and traveled to Spain, Italy, and Egypt. He became a volunteer exile who found his way in the beautiful Red City which turned out to be for him a self-revealing experience. He first visited Marrakech in 1917 to recover from a pulmonary illness; in 1923, he moved in permanently and chose to live in a house near the Palmerie.

Winston CHURCHIL he was the most renowned and the most solidly enamored with Marrakech. He even took his painting brushes with him to pick up, from the balconies of the hotel Mamounia Hotel, the magic of the city’s gardens in the glowing light of sunset. Winston Churchill was recovering from a cardiac distress when he discovered Marrakech for the first time in January, 1944. There he remained for a period of time. In December, 1943, while on a visit to Tunis, a new heart attack caused him concern for his life. After a fifteen days’ rest in Mamounia, he got up on his feet again. At the outset of the fifties, the Mamounia Hotel became highly noticed thanks to the regular presence of Winston Churchill who had rented a huge and sumptuous flat for a period of the year. He dedicated a lot of time to its passion of painting, inspired by the special light of this magical place.

General de Gaulle also came to stay there with Roosevelt after the conference of Casablanca in 1943.

Alfred HITCHKOCK the film “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” with James Stewart / Doris Day / Daniel Gelin. The grand master of suspense chose to fix his intrigue in the middle of the souk of Marrakech for the remake of his eponymous film “The Man Who Knew Too Much” which was first released in 1934. It is in the lounge of the restaurant Dar Essalam that Hitchcock shot a segment of the long-form film in 1956.
One remains glued to his seat until "The End" of the projection of this real jewel of the espionage thrillers.

In 1930, Marlene Dietrich shot her film "Morocco” in Marrakech

In 1968, the rock group Crosby, Still, Nash and Young wrote in the city their song “Marrakech Express".

Yves Saint Laurent: Between Yves Saint Laurent and Marrakech there is a long love story which started in 1966 when the high fashion designer and his companion set foot in the city for the first time. Nine days later, they bought their first holiday nest in the medina: "Dar El Hanch". Pretty quickly thereafter, they discovered the city and especially the Majorelle gardens. It was not until fourteen years later that they decided to buy the gardens back when they learned that they were going to be sold and transformed into a hotel, thus saving them from property speculations. Restoration works began right then, with the help of the Ethnobotanist Abderrazak Benchaâbane.

Coco Chanel, Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, they all came to Marrakech each year, after World War II, and stayed for long periods of time in the wintering quarters of the Mamounia hotel. Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones) and other rock stars of the sixties came looking for other secrets. One of such secrets, as it is said, is the Gnawa—a type of mystical musicians that are still in touch with the ancestral rhythms of the African land.

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Place Youssef Ibn Tachfine - Marrakech - Médina - Maroc
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