Last month the Big Cheese went to Morocco with his brother. Having been most recently to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, he was looking for something a little different. Morocco in January certainly fits that description. The tourist season is apparently spring and fall – when it’s neither swelteringly hot nor unbearably cold. But the Cheese and his brother have a high tolerance for cold, they were ready to go somewhere, they wanted to avoid the crowds, why not? They visited Marrakesh, and Essaouira, and Fes, and Casablanca, and traveled to Ouarzazate and the Erg Chebbi dunes, and various other places.
It smells heavenly on him. (Most things do, if only he would wear cologne. He considers perfume one of my oddities. He smells like soap and skin. Asking him to wear a scent regularly would be like asking him to wear lipstick or high heels; he would chuckle at my quirky sense of humor.)
He was pleased with Andy’s creation. He said it reminded him of the spice souk, with the spices in enormous piles of color. He said he could smell the scent faintly in his car after he had driven it. Beyond that, he couldn’t really say. To me the spices are very strong, with the fizzle of the petitgrain. The florals are lost entirely on him, and the vetiver is very much in the background. Rather than amber it smells of agarwood, leather, and incense. It smells wildly exotic and hopelessly romantic, but it does not smell of pigeon, and there is not even a hint of the tannery.
L’air du Désert Marocain is available at tauerperfumes.com for 65 $US, 100ml spray glass bottle.
What a great picture! I want to go to Morocco *and* back to Paris & Italy. Did you skip Laos, Cambodia, & Thailand too?
This sounds like an “Amazing Race” episode. I swear, they had one of those tanneries on there, and they made the contestants get in and squish up the skins or dig them out. Gag!
I’m with you, I’ll take a much more pedestrian Paris or NY or London trip where my pigeon is under glass.
:rotfl:
What a funny account!
But I heear some regret and wistfulness in this sentence:”It smells wildly exotic and hopelessly romantic, but it does not smell of pigeon, and there is not even a hint of the tannery.”
Did you want it to smell like that? Were you looking for *skank*? :biggrin:
Robin — yes, he did those trips solo. The truth is with four kids and our own business, it’s much easier to leave an adult here. Otherwise we’d be putting together a deal (or administering instructions for croup) from some hut in Myanmar with no fax machine.
But the other truth is that he really loves to travel spontaneously, it’s a major part of the pleasure for him. We took some wild backroad trips in the US, though, before we had kids.
P — pigeon under glass = squab.:smile:
I am a food sissy. He’s learned to cope with it. His trips often bear some similarity to Amazing Race episodes…
Marina, I am always looking for the Skank. It’s an element in some of my favorite perfumes. But I’m thinking more Guerlain, less Pigeon/Tannery. Maybe those are difficult notes to achieve in perfume, although Serge Lutens has come close.
I have a decant of Tauer’s Maroc pour Elle here, I still need to try that one.
Hello,
L’Air du Desert Marocain is interesting. I want to learn more about the process Tauer uses to make his fragrances. I will be featuring an interview with him and a story on the perfumes in the near future.
I know what you mean about leaving an adult here. We have two westies, no kids, and I often feel that way.
On spontaneity, I too like to travel on the spur of the moment. I have a perverse enjoyment of changing my reservations at the last minute too. Weirdo that I am.
The big cheese is adorable and the spice pyramids impressive.:thumbsup:
Cait –
I’m looking forward to your interview; he seems like a really interesting guy. I didn’t get to Maroc Pour Elle today; I know it’s garnered some great reviews.