Chefchaouen, the Blue City of Morocco

Chefchaouen is a small charming city of about 40,000 inhabitants located in northeastern Morocco near the Mediterranean Sea. Situated in the heart of Morocco's Rif Mountains, Chefchaouen is a tourist’s delight with affordable accommodations, and above all, a picturesque town set against the dramatic backdrop of the Rif Mountains filled with white-washed homes with distinctive, powder-blue accents.

Chefchaouen was painted blue by the Jewish refugees who lived there during the 1930's. The beauty of Chefchaouen's mountainous surroundings are enhanced by the contrast of the brightly painted medina (old town). It is this beauty and the relaxed atmosphere of the town that makes Chefchaouen very attractive to visitors. The main square in the medina is lined with cafes and filled to the brim with locals and tourist mingling easily. Another reason why backpackers love Chefchaouen is the easy availability of drugs. Tourism in Chaouen is driven by its reputation as center of the marijuana plantations region in North Morocco. During the summer approximately two hundred hotels cater to the influx of European tourists.

Chefchaouen is a popular shopping destination as well, as it offers many native handicrafts that are not available elsewhere in Morocco, such as wool garments and woven blankets. The goat cheese native to the area is also popular with tourists. The countryside around it has a reputation for being a prolific source of cannabis. The Chefchaouen region is one of the main producers of cannabis in Morocco. Hashish is subsequently sold all over town, but is mostly the domain of native Chaouenis.

Le Jardin des Biehn

First La Maison Biehn in Provence - now Le Jardin des Biehn in Fez. Catherine and Michel Biehn lovingly restored the summer palace of a Moroccan Pasha in the heart of the old Medina of Fez. Their boutique hotel, an authentic riad set in a large Andalusian garden, welcomes you with nine suites, a restaurant, a hammam and spa, a sophrology centre, and a gallery space where Michel Biehn displays his collections of antique textiles and costumes.

After 30 years spent scouring the globe for rare and exquisite objects, antiques collector Michel Biehn retreated to Fez’s ancient medina to open a small hotel in a restored riad that once served as a pasha’s summer palace. The result: the highly curated Le Jardin des Biehn (doubles from $140 to $200), whose nine guest rooms are an intoxicating whirl of textures and patterns. A crimson armoire from Sichuan is displayed near a concubine’s chair from Beijing; a wall-size Uzbek tapestry sets off an 18th-century mirror from Persia. Tying it all together are Moorish architectural details, including a courtyard framed by Moghul archways, walls overlaid with mosaic tiles, and a garden that provides many of the ingredients for the hotel’s Fez Café. Hicham, one of the chefs, moonlights as a maker of leather babouches (from $30), crafting them to order in hues ranging from ocher to pale blue. Guests are also welcome to peruse the Islamic textiles (from $180) in Biehn’s on-site gallery—where, for a price, you can begin a collection of your own.