Saturday morning saw me sitting on a bench seat alongside Turria, the local woman who, for the next 3 hours was going to teach me embroidery....Moroccan style!! She is one of a number of physically handicapped women who embroider products for sale through an organisation called Al Kawtar. They also teach embroidery to us foreigners who come over with fingers itchy to do a bit of stitching! She spoke no English & I neither speak Arabic or French! I did have an interpreter, but most of the learning was by watching & trying & continually making mistakes! She was an absolute sweetheart & the time went very quickly & I came away with plenty to practise!!
After 3 hours of sitting, I really needed to spend the afternoon MOVING! So we strolled, as best we could, dodging motorcycles, donkeys & human missiles to Palais Bahia. Again we enjoyed the craftsmanship of those who created panels of decorated plasterwork, carved wood & paint work.
This Palace was built over two generations before the end of the 19th century, so...it's relatively young in Palace years. The older part was...logically built by the Father... arranged his rooms geometricly around open courtyards, planted with trees. The newer part...built by the son, was less ordered & served his own purposes...everything on one level & easy for him to move through as he was seriously OBESE!! Above is one of the beautiful fireplaces.
Painted & carved ceilings abound here. It's not so easy to see but the picture above is carved back and has protrusions added to it!
!
Another delightful feature was more coloured glass windows. We saw this kind of work quite a lot in Egypt when we were there a few years ago, so it was exciting to recognise it's use here.
The older Sultan had achieved a calm & relaxing ambience with the placement of his courtyards. Further enhanced by the use of mirrors to reflect the greenery...or wayward Australasians.. back into the Palace!
No comments:
Post a Comment