The garden was made in the 1920s by the French painter Jacques Majorelle, with marble pools, raised pathways, banana trees, groves of bamboo, coconut palms and bougainvilleas. Perhaps unsuprisingly as the garden was designed by a painter, the garden is composed and coloured like a painting. Many of the built features were painted in a dark blue ('Majorelle Blue') which works very well with the soil, climate and plants. In fact, Majorelle's garden rather than his paintings was his masterpiece. Water is an important feature of the garden - there are channels, lily-filled ponds and fountains. Majorelle was an avid plant collector. After years of neglect, the garden was then taken over and restored by the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge.

See more photos on gardenvisit.com.

Written by  Tom Turner.

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Immersed in the Majorelle Gardens

The morning brought with it a slight breeze, blowing away the kaleidoscopic spectacles of the night before. We seized it with both hands and immersed ourselves in the Majorelle Gardens. The impact of this place is immediate: the reds and oranges of the medina become lost under the towering palm trees, fruit trees and eccentric collection of cacti. Two ponds create an oasis-like environment, which is heightened by the famous blue house that remains bewilderingly brighter than the sky on a clear day. Unlike the traditional Moroccan decoration that is so overwhelmingly detailed, the Majorelle Garden was begun by a French artist and then taken over by Yves Saint Laurent who confronts you in boldly painted pots, a rainbow of rare plants and amongst other species - a striped bamboo, that looks like it could only have been drawn up by a graphic designer.

 

Review posted 24th August 2009 by Isabel Galleymore.

Majorelle Gardens

These are the gardens of a French painter, Majorelle who came to live in Marrakech and had his eyes set a flame by the colours of this country. The watercolours of his art aren’t as bright as the colours of the garden – you can see some of them in the collection here – and his garden is what he’s now best known for. That and the colour of cobalt blue he’s used so much of in the garden, which is now called bleu Majorelle. While this is a very beautiful and well laid out place it is also a remarkable collection of plants, with flora from all five continents surviving amongst the bright whites and blues of the walls of his home and studio.

 

Review posted 20th March 2009 by World Reviewer Staff.

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