Tangier has a long history of attracting artists and writers, from Eugene Delacroix in the late 19th century painters flocked to the city attracted by the light and colour or possibly the reputation as a hotbed of vice, sex ,drugs and all manner of dissipation. One of the more famous was tha French impressionist Henri Mattise.
One of the first writers to make his home in the city was Paul Bowles in 1931, he settled here permanently in 1947. In his wake came Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote.
In the 50s possibly attracted by Bowles who had begun to be highly regarded as an author came the beat generation, William Burroughs, found the city much to his liking possibly because of the easy availability of drugs (he was a lifelong heroin addict ) The hotel where he stayed and wrote "The Naked Lunch" is still here and Lynne and I made a special trip to track it down. Its the El Muniria.
Here is a picture of Burroughs on the beach, he is the one fully clothed lying on the sand. The rather good looking fellow in the middle is another icon of the Beat generation Jack Kerouac.
There is a bookshop in the new town on the main street , Boulevard Pasteur, that was a meeting place for this group of writers, its the Librairie des Colonnes and we visited to look around and pick up a copy of Paul Bowles possibly most famous work "The Sheltering Sky"
Strangely its not available on Kindle outside the U.S. but it was agood excuse to browse around anyway.
A little further on down the Boulevard Pasteur is " The Terrace," a favourite place for selfies looking over the bay or pictures with the impressive bronze canons . Not wanting to break with tradition, and because I rarely feature in these blogs, here I am....
We followed the street down towards the square now known as Place du 9th Avril 1947, more commonly known as The Grand Socco. Following a small street down past the fish market we found the entrance through the walls of the medina from the Rue Portugal known as the Bab Mericane.
It leads almost immediately to the entrance to the American Legation. Now a museum but for 140 years served as the American Consulate. It was in fact the first foreign property ever acquired by the fledgling United States. It is home to a great deal of art and the suite of rooms spanning one of the old alleyways are beautiful in their own right. Below is the entrance courtyard.
The various rooms of the legation are decorated with prints, engravings , and original art which are fascinating and tell a story of the relationship between the two countries. it is sometimes difficult to tell the fact from fiction. The governors office carries posters for the movie Casablanca for example.
The conference room overlooks the courtyard and has a map of the mediteranean on the floor, There are many interesting nautical charts of the western med, it also has the most stylish toilet (male only) in Tangier! It also houses an exhibition of the work of TALIM (Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies) a non profit organisation that has outreach programs, one for example works with women in the Medina in a literacy program. It rents the building from the US government and runs the museum.
There are several more rooms full of original art. This needs careful study of the small information panels in order to fully appreciate.
In the dining room there is a glass case with an intriguing diorama, I was unable to find out what it actually represents
There are some fascinating small works these two watercolours are by Cecil beaton
I loved this clock, obviously Moroccan and still working...
This cabinet held memorabilia about a famous kidnapping by a warlord Raissouli, of an American Perdicaris. It was made into a film with Sean Connery the American gentleman was replaced by Candice Bergen. The film was The Wind and the Lion.
Margaritte Mcbeys husband was an engraver and artist this is one of his works.
And this is a pen portrait of William Burroughs by Margaritte.
This is one of our friend Paul Bowles.
This is Margaritte in later life.
These are some of her watercolours.
A raised walkway crosses the street below and leads to a courtyard where their is an exhibition of memorabilia of Paul Bowles.
Its a particularly beautiful part of the complex of buildings.
The exhibition is in the downstairs rooms just off a cool courtyard which if you look carefully has a resident tortoise!
The woodwork was done by craftsmen from Fez.
Even the interior doors are richly decorated.
The exhibition has letters and musical recordings, Bowles was a musician as well as author and he recorded over 300 traditional Moroccan Folk songs and tunes in later life. These along with original compositions by Paul play on a continuous loop.
Its a surprisingly intimate glimpse into a very private persons life.
Paul lived in Tangiers until his death in 1999. He seems to have gad a lot of luggage , this is just some of it.
Postcards were sometimes addressed to Paul Bowlwes Tangier Morocco and surprisingly they reached him.
There are also photos of authors and other who came to visit.
It was nice to sit in the cool of the courtyard.
We walked over toward the Kasbah to get some pastries and we decided to have tea in the Cafe Anglais. The pavement tables were full so we were invited onto the roof.
As the sun moved around this became quite hot so we moved into the upstairs lounging area.
All very Moroccan and comfortable, the tea was slightly unusual in that instead of mint in the glass it was triple brewed in the pot and delicious. The teapot was nicely decorated too, also practical as the handle is usually very hot!
Lynne demonstrating the correct way to hold a glass of hot tea...…
We felt properly cultured up after a long day of literature and art.
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