Jardin Majorelle Audio Guide

Jardin Majorelle: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Jardin Majorelle

   Welcome to Jardin Majorelle, known in Arabic as hadiqat Majoril, on Rue Yves Saint Laurent in Marrakech. Behind its outer walls lies a botanical garden and artist's landscape garden, laid out like a labyrinth of crisscrossing alleyways on different levels. Its boldly coloured buildings blend Art Deco and Moorish influences, and the whole place feels like a painting you can walk through. The garden stands close to Avenue Yacoub el-Mansour. It is about a 30 minute walk from the medina, though across busy roads. A taxi will get you to the gate easily, and a bus will drop you at the Boukar Majorelle stop. It is one of the most popular places in Marrakech, and the queues have a reputation. The garden recommends booking your ticket online in advance, so you can secure the date and time you want. Over the next few stops, we will follow three threads: the painter who created the garden, the famous blue that carries his name, and the fashion designer who rescued it. Keep your eyes open for all three as you wander.

2. 02

   The Painter Who Fell for Marrakech

   Our story begins with Jacques Majorelle, the son of a renowned Art Nouveau furniture designer. Around 1917, as a young aspiring painter, he was sent to Morocco to convalesce from a serious medical condition. He spent a short time in Casablanca, then travelled to Marrakech, and like many artists of his generation, he fell for the vibrant colours and street life he found there. After travelling around North Africa and the Mediterranean, he decided to settle in Marrakech for good. In his lifetime he earned a reputation as a celebrated Orientalist painter. In 1923, four years after his marriage to Andrée Longueville, he bought a plot of land on the edge of a palm grove and built a house in the Moroccan style. The plot became a lifelong project. The garden was created over about 40 years, and Majorelle conceived of it as both a sanctuary and a botanical laboratory, planted with exotic specimens from the far corners of the world. Look for the coconut trees, cacti, banana trees, bougainvillea, water lilies, yuccas, jasmine, palms and bamboo. The garden's winding paths follow no strict rules of style. They are the work of a painter's eye, and you will notice that as you walk.

3. 03

   Majorelle Blue and the Cubist Villa

   Now look at the colour. That intense cobalt blue is called Majorelle Blue, after the man who made it his signature. He drew inspiration from the coloured tiles he had seen around Marrakech and from the burnouses worn by Berber people in the surrounding countryside. He used it on the buildings, the pergolas, the ceramic pots and the water basins, and the garden is now inseparable from that shade. At the heart of the garden stands a Cubist villa, designed by the architect Paul Sinoir, who was commissioned in 1931. It was built as Majorelle's residence and studio. Its white volumes and right angles are spare and geometric, set in deliberate contrast with the dense, organic growth all around. Sinoir also added a long, narrow, shallow basin. In 1933, Majorelle added balconies and an Arabic-style pergola to the villa. Notice how the strict geometry of the architecture meets the soft curves of leaves. The play between controlled lines and wild plants is a big part of the garden's magic.

4. 04

   Yves Saint Laurent and the Garden's Rescue

   The garden's fame today is tied to a famous name: the designer Yves Saint Laurent. He and his partner Pierre Bergé first arrived in Morocco in 1966. In 1980 they purchased Jardin Majorelle to save it from destruction at the hands of hotel developers. Without that purchase, the garden you are walking through might have vanished beneath a hotel. Saint Laurent described the garden as an endless source of inspiration, and it is easy to see why. Look at how the colours relate to one another, how different textures meet, and how controlled geometry meets dense growth. He renamed Majorelle's villa Villa Oasis. The garden's name for the street outside makes more sense now, too. Rue Yves Saint Laurent is a quiet reminder of the second chapter in this garden's life, when a fashion designer picked up the story of a painter and carried it forward.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   As you wander on, try a little experiment. Pick one spot and look at how the blue behaves. Against green leaves it seems to glow, and beside pale walls it looks almost electric. A painter chose these relationships carefully, and a fashion designer later fell for them. The garden is busy, and you may share it with plenty of visitors, so take your time and let the crowds drift past while you look more closely. Notice how the alleyways rise and fall across different levels, and how the plants from distant parts of the world sit side by side. And as you leave, ask yourself which of the garden's makers you feel closest to: the convalescing painter who planted a laboratory of exotic specimens, or the designer who stepped in to save it. There is always another corner of the garden to look at again.