Essaouira

The trade winds, the Portuguese ramparts facing the Atlantic and the blue boats in the harbour. Essaouira is a place for a jumper, to the sound of gulls and gnaoua guembris.

This is a town for a jumper. The trade winds blow almost every day and drop in late afternoon, which explains the windsurfers in summer and the empty terraces at midday.

The ramparts are Portuguese, built in the sixteenth century, reworked by a French architect in the eighteenth for the sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah. The Skala lines its bronze cannon against the Atlantic, and people climb up to watch the boats come in.

The port still works. The blue boats return around six, the gulls follow, and the grills go up on the quay straight after. It is the simplest and the best meal in town.

The medina is square, laid out on a grid, which is rare in Morocco. You do not get lost. The marquetry workshops fill the arcades near the port: the thuya comes from the hills behind town, and a burl takes twenty years to form.

Gnaoua music is not a visitor attraction here. The zaouias play all year, and the June festival only makes public what happens the rest of the time.