HOTELCAMP SITEend of Goulmima’s oasis that’s home to several hundred. A guide can lead you through the
palmeraie and ksar to the 500-year-old mosque and historic Jewish mellah . To get to there,
head through downtown, turn right at the Er-Rachidia roundabout; the ksar is signed straight on.
Sleeping & Eating
Head northeast of town to the village of Tadighoust for overnight stays on a wildly imaginative
organic farmstead – Chez Pauline ( Click here ).
Maison d’Hôtes les Palmiers €€
( /fax 0535 78 40 04; www.palmiersgoulmima.com; Palmeraie de Goulmima; s/d/tr/q
Dh220/350/450/524; ) Many houses have lawns, but this oasis home of a French- Moroccan
couple has palms, a Berber sleeping tent and an impressive collection of ancient water jars.
Guest rooms are spacious and spotless, with tiled bathrooms; all are heated in winter, and one
has air-con. The garden-fresh, mostly Berber menu is fabulous (dinner Dh95); trekking
information and ksar guides are available.
Chez Michéle €
( 0535 88 54 13; Ave Hassan II; camping d Dh60, additional person Dh15, electricity Dh20;
) Camping with all the mod-cons, including hot showers, laundry (Dh50 per load), a garden
cafe and a chlorinated pool.
Getting There & Away
Grands taxis run when full to Er-Rachidia and Tinerhir via Tinejdad.
EDEN IN AFRICA: CHEZ PAULINE
No, this organic oasis/African art gallery/farmyard petting zoo/gourmet retreat outside a small Berber village is not a figment of
your imagination, though you’ll probably wish you’d thought of it first. Chez Pauline ( 0535 88 54 25;
http://www.gitechezpauline.com; Tadighoust; GPS coordinates N31º48.954, W004º584.064; s & d Dh350, 1-5 person ste Dh550, d
camping with car Dh60; ) is a highly unusual farmstead named after a pet donkey that’s open to wild ideas and visitors, too.
Franco-Catalan owners André and Chantal Boyer were hoteliers for a decade in Guinea and Sierra Leone, where they
amassed a collection of rare ceremonial masks and statuary that might make museum curators weep. Guest rooms at Chez
Pauline double as galleries, with masks covering walls above plush four-poster beds. For those not accustomed to so many
new faces at bedtime, one room has no masks in the bedroom – though there are some in the bathroom facing the toilet,
revealing your host-curators’ sly humour.
But they’re serious about cooking here, and sustainability too. Recipe ingredients are strictly local and organic, given the
Boyers’ commitment to organic farming since 1983. Where other hoteliers would plunk a pool, here there’s a wildflower
meadow and four palm-shaded camp sites.
It’s off Rte de Rich, 18km north of Goulmima. The road is paved, with the splendid Aït Yahia ksar on the right and palm
groves on the left heading north from the Goulmima roundabout. Ahead is a formidable stretch of hammada (rocky desert)
backed by the High Atlas, with the oasis village of Tadighoust (aka Tadirhoust) curled at its feet. Follow signs leading you left
into the village, down a piste that curves northwest, past whitewashed mudbrick houses.
When you’re beginning to think this drive is a wild goose chase, you arrive at a mudbrick-walled garden, where ducks
waddle under apricot trees. Sheep bleat hello from the olive grove’s edge, where they’re doing their job as lawn mowers.