Sleeping in James Bond's bed and more!

Oh what a find! La Maison Blanche was exactly what we needed.  We sat in the salon, sipping mint tea served by the wonderful Annanuska and told Aziz our woeful story.  We asked if he had a room for five nights.  He shook his head sadly,  You can stay but sometimes you will have to change rooms, but tonight you will stay in the Moulay Ismail room for the standard price.

At that point we knew little of the history of Moulay or the room. All we wanted to do was soak in the deep bath, eat and sleep.  I had a disconcerting pain in my back which distracted me from the vivid description of the beautifully hand painted ceilings, wallpaper and silk curtains. But my ears did prick up when he said.  'This is the bed that James Bond slept in!'   

The next day we discovered it was Daniel Craig who had stayed in the room.  During our stay we tried out three rooms, all for the standard room price.  They were named after famous people, mainly writers and poets. As for Moulay Ismail we discovered it was named after Sultan Moulay Ismail IBN Sharif - the most gruesome character in the history of Morocco. He has some dubious claims to fame including the fathering of more kids than anyone else... and I always thought that was Ghengis Khan!

An interesting read here

After a glorious bath that eased my bath somewhat we chose a quirky closest restaurant to have a tagine. Glorious views, very ordinary food and a sneaky red wine served in plastic beakers.

The next morning Annanuska served us the most wonderful breakfast fresh unleavened bread, jams, thin pikelets, juice, scambled eggs and dark, dark coffee.  Yum!  As we chatted with Aziz we realised we had got her name wrong.  We had been calling her  'My name is nuska'  Ha Ha the joys of travel.

We were excited to set off exploring.  The only niggle was this pain in my back and side when I lay down or sat!