Having had eleven hours of good quality sleep we were now internally time-zone adjusted and ready for a hearty breakfast and a day’s site seeing in Casablanca. Before breakfast we face-timed family back in Australia.
Casablanca was originally established as a small Amazigh settlement in the 7th century and named Anfa meaning hill. In the 18th century it became a major trade centre for Morocco due to its rich agricultural hinterland and its harbour. Casablanca was then a significant provider of sugar, tea, wool and cereal grains to European markets.
It was in the 20th century, under the French Protectorate that it adopted the Spanish name Casablanca meaning “White House” and was transformed to become a major economic hub with innovative architects involved in a huge building project. This economic development has continued unabated since independence from France in 1956 and today the city of Casablanca is number nine amongst the ten largest cities in Africa with a population of just under four million.
We met Chahine at 10:30 and then walked along the coastal promenade to the nearby tram terminus.
View from the promenade
Our travels on the very comfortable and modern tram and subsequent walking tour took us through the various quarters of the city with an opportunity to observe the many styles of architecture in Casablanca.
Our tram
The dominant architectural style is Mauresque or classical French from the 1920s. Architects of that time drew upon the repertoire of Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Neo Classicism with avant-garde tendencies moderated by a more traditional Moroccan style.
Many of these stately buildings today are showing signs of their age but are now undergoing progressive refurbishment although the street facades in most cases are to be retained by law to preserve the architectural splendour of times past.
A striking example of the fusion of Neo-Gothic and Art-Deco architecture is the twin towered white concrete Sacré Coeur Cathedral. Since 1956 it has no longer been a church but now serves as an art centre.
Sacré Coeur Cathedral
In addition to the Mauresque period there is today a dramatic building project underway with new multi-storey office blocks being established in what were previously peripheral regions of the city. The new structures we observed included a broad range of developments including hospitals, commercial buildings, universities, schools, mosques and an opera house plus numerous expensive residential units.
Grande Poste building
Cafe des Negotiants
Renovated building with original facade
It was pleasing to encounter parkland regions during our walking tour. We particularly enjoyed spending time in the extensive Parc de la Ligue Arabe with its impressive lawns, flowerbeds and fountains.
New Opera House & fountain in public square
Parc de la Ligue Arabe
During our city tour we visited the central market area. This bustling hive of human activity was fascinating with every conceivable commodity on sale. Especially colourful were the vegetable and spice tables but most interesting was the fish market with unexpected sea-foods such as barnacles and large swordfish plus a very broad range of scale fish for sale.
Fruit stall at Central Marketplace
Crabs at Central Marketplace
Swordfish at Central Marketplace
Chahine kindly bought us a coffee and corn fritters for a lunchtime snack and we then headed back to our van that was parked nearby.
For our drive back to the hotel Chahine took us through some of the more up-market residential suburbs where the homes were super impressive and equally expensive. Noteworthy were the King’s Palace and the Anfa residential quarter. Anfa is the “Beverly Hills” of Casablanca with wide avenues lined with floral decorations and luxurious villas with terraces, swimming pools and beautiful gardens. In this precinct was once the Hotel d’Anfa, now demolished, where in January 1943 President Franklin Roosevelt met with Prime Minister Winston Churchill to decide upon the date of the Allied landings in Normandy (D-Day). The Germans were misled by the translation of Casablanca into thinking the meeting was in the White House in Washington and failed to gain vital intelligence information.
Zevaco Dome & Clocktower of the Old Medina above underpass at centre of city,
We arrived back at our hotel in the mid-afternoon giving us time to catch up on the diary and down-load photographs.
For our evening meal we went to Rick’s Café which has claim to fame as the café suggested in the Hollywood 1942 movie Casablanca. In fact the movie was not filmed in Morocco at all but Rick’s Café in Casablanca was designed and specifically decorated in 2004 to recreate the bar made famous in the classic Bogart ~ Bergman movie. It is presently owned by the ‘Usual Suspects’ company!
Arches, Rick's Cafe
Jak & Corinne at Rick's Cafe
Pianist at Rick's Cafe
The restaurant is housed in a traditional Moroccan three storey mansion built in 1930 with a central courtyard and a distinctive street front entrance with heavy wooden doors as in the movie. Internally there are curved arches, a sculptured bar, balconies and balustrades as well as beaded brass lighting. The décor is full of tile and woodwork representing Morocco’s craft industry. The 1930s Pleyel piano used in the movie has been upgraded to a Yamaha Grand but “As Time Goes By” was nonetheless still a popular request.
Both our fish meals of salmon and bass were superbly presented with the taste and accoutrements including wines of an equal excellence. The service, atmosphere and overall dining experience were quite outstanding and will be remembered for years to come!
Our meal at Rick's Cafe
Jak at Rick's Cafe
We left Rick’s Café at 20:45 and Chahine was waiting to pick us up with the van and return us to our hotel.
We’ve had a most informative day learning a little more about this great city culminating with an intriguing and memorable dining experience.
Tomorrow we depart Casablanca and venture northwards to visit the Moroccan capital Rabat as well as the blue city of Chefchaouen.