A Sophisticated Day Relaxing - French Style

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After all the walking yesterday, we decided we were going to take it easy today, so after some extra sleep and a leisurely breakfast, it was off to the pool for a while.

The hotel pool had been open for over an hour and still none of the sun-beds had any towels on them. Obviously there are very few British or Germans staying here. Actually, most of the people seem to be French.

Of course if the place is full of French people then it goes without saying that the food is excellent – there’s no full English or chips here. Combine that with the relaxed approach to, urr, relaxing and I have to say that I would much rather stay in a hotel with the French than with the British. The only downside is the constant smoking.

The area where our hotel is, and a great many others also, is about a mile from the Medina and has a very definite feel of The Strip in Las Vegas about it, with its long wide boulevard and large hotels, but not quite so over-the-top obviously. That said, there are a couple of excessively extravagant buildings, most significantly the Théâtre Royal with its Roman columns and mosque-like dome.

We went for an evening walk to the walls of the Medina for some photographs whilst the sun was setting. That was definitely worthwhile as the colours are fantastic as the shades of orange changed, particularly when it was partially in shade and partially illuminated by the low, golden sun.

We went to eat in the hotel restaurant at about 7.30pm, 30 minutes after it had opened. It was completely empty and for another 30 minutes we were literally he only people in there. Again, another difference between staying in a hotel full of French and a hotel full of British, where there would probably be a queue outside before the restaurant had even opened and then a mad scrum for the chips.

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Photos

Medina Walls
The walls of the Medina at sunset

Wot No Towels
Empty pool two hours after it opened - not very British

Théâtre Royal
Las Vegas like architecture on the Marrakech strip