By Glenys Roberts
Port in a storm: Tangier has been attracting celebrities and tourists for decades
Morning service at St Andrew’s Church, and the well-mannered congregation is singing ‘Glorious Things Of Thee Are Spoken’. Afterwards, in the churchyard, they greet others in plummy tones that can be heard anywhere in the Home Counties.
Suddenly a well-dressed elderly lady, she must be 90, snaps out of the impeccable character suggested by her Chanel suit and pearls, and starts pointing frantically at a barely healed hole in her calf. ‘You see that,’ she screams like a fishwife, ‘Birdie did it!’
Welcome to expat heaven Tangier, Morocco, where the British still cling to an elegant social round, for the most part long gone in the mother country.
With their own church, their favourite hotel, the Minzah, built by the immensely rich Marquis of Bute in the Thirties; their own riding school; and their own cemetery (and pet cemetery), it is one of world traveller Michael Palin’s favourite destinations as described in his book Sahara.
Palin tells of the typically bizarre churchyard scene when Birdie, an elderly white pet cockerel, took a bite out of a retired widow called Lady Baird.
Quite why I fell in love with Tangier and its eccentric ways, I can’t remember. I have been visiting it since the Sixties and seen it change from a scruffy town to a modern city with French restaurants, beach bars and a summer influx of some of Europe’s richest people.
Mick Jagger, who has kept a flame alive for it almost as long as I have, paid a flying visit this year to see his favourite jeweller Majid, and I met Sixties rock chick Pattie Boyd, still looking a million dollars stretched out under a coconut hair parasol.
I first visited the white city, as it is known because of its dazzling buildings and fabulous light, on a day trip from Gibraltar on the shuttle plane run in those days by Gibair. When the plane was grounded by sea mist, the company put us up in the Minzah.
I was smitten and have never stayed anywhere else since. With its entrance in the middle of the town and view over the bay, it is surely one of the best-placed hotels in the world.
It is hard to think of a better positioned town either. On a headland where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean and overlooking Cape Trafalgar, where Nelson lost his life, it is a must for history buffs.
The town has had Western visitors ever since the 17th- century diarist Samuel Pepys was sent there to wind up the British garrison in 1683.
Gore Vidal came to Tangier for the boys, Errol Flynn for the girls. Matisse and Degas came to paint and couturier Yves Saint Laurent to gain inspiration for his collections. Tennessee Williams came to write and so did Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. Winston Churchill and Aristotle Onassis both visited and the legendary American writer Paul Bowles moved in.
Intriguing: One of the enticing shops on Rue de la Liberté (left) and recent celebrity visitor Tilda Swinton (right)
Today, the King of Morocco Mohammed VI is determined to make it a showcase city. He has built a corniche at the base of the kasbah and a marina that he hopes will make it into another Monaco.
There is so much confidence in the air that the Spanish come to look for work in construction. And there are so many French intellectuals – French is still the lingua franca – at times it is possible to imagine oneself on the Left Bank in Paris.
In fact, it has become so sophisticated that two films were in the making while I was there this year – Tilda Swinton in Jim Jarmusch’s story of two vampires in love and a French documentary about homosexual lovers Jean Cocteau and Raymond Radiguet.
Old Tangier hands like myself hope our favourite town will not end up a concrete jungle as parts of Europe have done, but whatever happens it is difficult to imagine it being altogether changed.
It is built on so many hills that there will always be those tempting glimpses through the buildings to the sea. When I first visited, many of the women were veiled. Now the French sunbathe topless and the carpet sellers speak perfect English. You can gamble in the casinos, you can drink in the restaurants and quad-bike and surf on the beaches.
But one thing is quite different when you jet in from London: the way people still know how to enjoy the moment. They love to sit around in cafes watching the world go by and not worrying what the next day will bring. It is such a cultural shift it makes for a very relaxing holiday.
Most of all there is the impression, because of Tangier’s history, of living in several centuries and several countries all at the same time.
Travel Facts
El Minzah Hotel has double rooms from £167 (00 212 539 333 444,www.elminzahleroyal.com).
Royal Air Maroc flies from London Heathrow to Tangier from £243 (020 730 758 00,www.royalairmaroc.com).
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