Riad Salomé

In the heart of Rabat, near the Sidi Fatah road - where the nobility of the city once lived - is Riad Salomé, my home, my oasis of peace. It owes its name to this bust of Salomé, signed A. Foretay, which I bought a decade ago in a fishing village on the Moroccan coast. In fact, the word Salomé comes from the Hebrew שלום, "Shalom" which means peace. Abandoned and uninhabited for more than 10 years, the house kept intact this aura of positive energy that attracted me so much. Together with local artisans, true artists of the trade, we have completely restored it. Various families had inhabited it over the years, adding partition walls, building kitchens on each floor, apartments in the apartments, destroying the mosaic floors, the ceilings in solid wood panels, painting the doors and windows of precious woods. . With infinite patience and meticulousness worthy of a goldsmith, we have studied, researched, restored to the house its original splendor. After four years of hard work we managed to bring the house back to its original splendor without forgetting a bit of modern comfort. Where possible we kept the original terracotta floors, brought to light the Salé stone of the patio columns, stripped off the magnificent cedar and tuya doors, restored the mosaics there where they were destroyed ... Being a lover of trees and birds, and wanting to respect the word "riad" which means garden in Arabic, I created a garden in the patio planting also 4 magnificent palm trees that today measure more than 10 meters inspiring me from the desert oasis and books on English gardens. In the coolness of the patio time takes another dimension giving you a relaxing and meditative atmosphere that you will struggle to forget. The two rooms that rent overlook this beautiful garden, this place that - according to Muslims - is a temporal representation of paradise.