Colourful, playful and chic, the Majorelle Garden in Marrakech’s Ville Nouvelle was one of my favourite places in the city.
Created by the French painter Jacques Majorelle in the 1920s on a barren plot of land, he later built a house, where he lived for the next 20-odd years.
In 1947, Majorelle opened the mesmerising Art Deco-style garden to the public, but after he sold it in the 1950s, it fell into decline.
The garden was revived in the 1980s when it was bought by the legendary French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, who lovingly restored it with his partner Pierre Bergé.
Today, the garden features more than 1,800 species of cactii and 400 types of palm, along with bougainvillea, bamboo, geraniums, yucca and cypress.
It’s also home to the Pierre Bergé Museum of Berber Arts, housed in Majorelle’s old studio.
You have to pre-book to visit, so we bought our tickets online the day before and when we arrived for our 10.30am time slot, there was already a long queue.
The day we visited, the private garden around the Villa Oasis where Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé lived was open to the public.
It isn’t open every day and we hadn’t realised we’d be able to go in, so we decided to start our tour there.
We made our way towards the garden to find the gate closed, but shortly afterwards a security guard let us in, giving us a token so we could later re-enter the main garden.
Between the two gardens, there was a small artisan market selling goods, including toiletries and some amazing-looking fruit and veg.
The private garden was delightful and, like the main garden, filled with cactii and palms planted amid a sea of light beige gravel (above).
The garden was punctuated by pops of colour, which I loved, including the famous Majorelle blue (above), as well as vivid shades of yellow, turquoise and orange.
Beautiful tiled water features were dotted throughout the garden, some of which had koi and goldfish in them.
The Villa Oasis sits at the far end of the private garden next to a huge pool. Its striking rose pink (above) contrasting brilliantly with the garden’s greenery and eye-catching design.
We couldn’t go inside the house, so we had to make do with admiring it from afar.
The garden is a gorgeous, tranquil space and I was particularly taken by one of the dark green water features near the villa (above).
Thanks to the abundance of trees, the was garden nice and cool, and offered a welcome respite from the strong, hot north African sun.
Having seen all there was to see in the private garden, we made our way back to the main part.
We followed the set visitors’ path through the garden and soon came to an elegant memorial to Yves Saint Laurent, commissioned by Pierre Bergé.
It’s a simple column set on a pink block surrounded by a handful of potted plants (above).
We continued through the garden and before long came to a walkway, painted in Majorelle blue, which led to a lily pond (above).
The pond was filled with frogs and there was an adorable, tiny turtle by the water’s edge (below).
A little further along, we came upon the Pierre Bergé Museum of Berber Arts, which showcases some 600 artefacts about Berber life collected by Bergé and Saint Laurent.
These include photos depicting the Berbers’ traditional way of life, wooden objects, ceramics and musical instruments.
The small, expertly curated museum was fascinating and I was glad we’d taken the time to look around.
I was particularly enamoured by the jewellery section, especially the beautiful bracelets, and was amazed by how big and heavy some of the earrings were.
I also loved the clothing section, which displayed various Berber outfits. Many were made from wool and looked as though they’d be very warm, ideal for the cooler climes of the High Atlas mountains.
The museum was well laid out and there was lots of information about the artefacts and Berber culture, which made for a great visitor experience (photos aren’t allowed inside).
We visited Jardin Majorelle on a Saturday morning and even though it was really busy, it was easy enough to escape the throng.
Much of the gardens were roped off, forcing visitors to walk along the dedicated paths.
It was a great idea to control the crowds and meant we could easily see everything in the gardens without other people getting in our way.
On leaving the garden, we headed to the Musée Yves Saint Laurent de Marrakech next door (above).
It was a strict affair – we weren’t allowed to take water inside and photography was banned in the exhibition rooms.
We started our visit in a fantastic temporary exhibition about Jardin Majorelle, which boasted two magnificent models of the gardens, where the plants were replaced by gold versions (I particularly loved the gold palm trees).
From there, we made our way to the main collection – a series of outfits by Yves Saint Laurent featuring floral motifs that showed how flowers inspired the famed designer.
Most of the outfits were from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and I really didn’t like them. There was a lot of appliqué, sequins and garish prints. They may have been haute couture and worth thousands, but I felt many were downright tacky.
There was the odd piece I’d have happily worn – a lovely velvet jacket with gold trim near the entrance and a pretty, dusky pink draped floral dress towards the end.
The other parts of the small museum showcased cartoons, photos depicting YSL’s work in film (he dressed French actress Catherine Deneuve a lot) and a short film about his work.
The museum was well curated and designed, but there wasn’t much content, so it didn’t take long to look around.
The Jardin Majorelle was similar, in that without the private garden, there wouldn’t have been masses to see.
I’d recommend going when the private garden is open and getting a combined ticket that also gives you entrance to the two museums, as otherwise it’s a bit of a trek to the Ville Nouvelle.
Despite its small size, I adored Jardin Majorelle, especially the private garden. It’s exceptionally beautiful and I was so inspired by what I saw that when I remodelled my garden last summer, I based the design and colour scheme on it.
Info
Jardin Majorelle
Open 8.30am to 5.30pm, every day
Pre-book tickets online
jardinmajorelle.com/en/
Little Old World 
Your posts have piqued my interest in Morocco. It’s highly doubtful I’ll ever be there in person, but you never know.
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