Mail on Sunday. Feb 17, 2008.
Marrakech Express by Richard Trillo
At more than a third of an acre, Riad el Arsat is the largest privately owned garden in the medina. It’s an exquisite refuge of lemon and fig trees, date palms, jasmine and bamboo divided by mosaic encrusted paths and dotted with fountains.
There’s an azure swimming pool, tables, recliners and a small kitchen whence emerges a steady supply of drinks and superb food. At dishes end, soaring columns flank the verandas by the guest rooms.
The intricately sculpted ceilings are 12th over our heads. There’s nothing hip hotel about el Arsat.
Our charming French hostess explains that the house has been a labour of love, purchased in a series of complex transactions from the feuding halves of a sugar-trading family and preserved as far as possible in all its 19th century magnificence.
The beds are firm and comfortable and every detail, from plants pots to lamp-shade, has been considered.
Special place to stay 2004
What is special behind that fine blue door? The garden, a hundred times the garden. This is the only place in the medina with a proper garden, 1800m2 of bird-filled orchard and jingly greenery, singing fountains and big pool.
Each bedroom has its own little terrace onto this magical space.
The colonnade marches proudly past it, joining winter house to summer house… bathrooms are, of course, excellent, the terraces are sublime and the staff perfectly discreet and helpful.
Michelin 2003 à 2009
Les mots manquent pour décrire l’immense jardin, peuplé d’orangers et de palmiers de ce palais, absolument inattendu au cœur de la médina. De part et d’autres deux corps de bâtiments se font face : la « maison d’été » avec ses superbes plafonds de cèdre, son bureau bibliothèque, son mobilier très « années trente » ; la « maison d’hiver » avec sa cheminée monumentale. Rajoutons une chambre qui installée dans un petit pavillon en bordure de la piscine, ne manque pas de charme.
Histoire et Patrimoine N°2, Février 2003, par Louise Noailhac
Notre luxe à nous, c’est l’espace. Voilà comment Nicole Arbousset décrit sa somptueuse demeure, si atypique dans la galaxie des cinq cents maisons d’hôtes que compte Marrakech …l’ancien domaine des Kabbaj 1800m2 ceints, comme il se doit, de hauts murs ocre.
Les palais faux jumeaux avec leurs galeries andalouses carrelées d’élégants zelliges et bordées de colonnes enveloppées de tadelakt couleur cire, se narguent de part et d’autre des bambous, figuiers, bougainvilliers et palmiers qui effleurent les allées du jardin.
Villas N°109, Mayo 2002
Since its completion at the end of the nineteenth century, Riad el Arsat has been an oasis in the heart of Marrakech’s old medina. The lightly cultivated garden betrays a deliberate sense of wildness that only adds to its beauty and peace.
Long andalusian colonnade galleries flank each of the houses, acting as thresholds before garden. Furnished for eating and lounging, the colonnades are the perfect place for sipping a mint and contemplating life, or merely the delightful bougainvillaea.
Conde Nast Travel magazine, January 2001
The charm of the Riad el Arsat lies in what has been left unfinished. The high-walled courtyard is more like a secret garden where finches drink unflustered from the mosaic birdbaths and flowers are almost left to go to seed. It is pretty and wild, deliberately unkempt but for the arch shaped pool wish is kept immaculately clean…Both are flanked by Andalusian-style colonnades wrapped in vines and bougainvilleae. Of the suites, the grandest is on the ground floor of the summer house: filled with the smell of roasting almonds, it has French windows decorated with orange mauve and peppermint-green glass a small four poster covered with antique velvet and a pink, vaulted bathroom. It is just the place for a low-key honeymoon romantic without being saccharine.
Select, March 1999- Marrakech
Riad el Arsat on the other hand is all pool: a big sparkling rectangle of cool aquamarine in the middle of a huge tiled courtyard shaded by large orange trees and date palms. The pride and joy of Mme Arbousset (other than Isis, her bouncy Scottie dog). This lovingly restored home is one of the city’s most sublime places to stay. Lunch & dinner provided pool side, in the banqueting hall or on one of the two sunny rooftop terraces. |
