La Mamounia

Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku lined the room in pale wood and deep indigo fabric, and kept the light low and warm. By day it opens onto the gardens, and in the evening it takes on the life of the Majorelle Gallery. Jean-Georges Vongerichten's menu draws on Japan, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and India.

You eat in a winter garden painted with playful cats, among almond-green furniture and large windows onto the gardens, and a covered terrace that leads straight outside. The cooks work at an island in the middle of the room, and the smell of pizza drifts from the big oven.

Le Marocain fills 3 floors of a riad built in the Arabo-Andalusian way around a central patio. You are shown to an alcove lined with soft cushions, like a little jewel box, or to one of the private lounges.

The pavilion was built as a tribute to the Menara pavilion of Marrakech. Its terrace is shaded by large parasols at the edge of the pool, and you can come to lunch straight from your morning swim.

The painter Jacques Majorelle came to La Mamounia in 1922 to decorate a restaurant, and the bar that carries his name is full of colour. The bar itself is sculpted in glass veneers, the Galerie Majorelle beside it is hung in silky green fabric and looks over the gardens, and outside, the esplanade is laid out around a carob tree planted for the centenary.

Le Club is easy to miss, up on the top floor of Le Marocain. Come before dinner to watch the sun go down, sit under the tent, then take your drink out to the terrace over the gardens, where the music stays soft and the evening is calm.

Le Bar de la Piscine sits in the heart of the hotel with the gardens all round it, and its armchairs and deck chairs are made for a long, slow afternoon. By day the drinks come from the kitchen garden; towards evening it turns to house cocktails.

Le Churchill is named for Winston Churchill, who wintered here with his wife Clementine and thought La Mamounia one of the most beautiful places in the world. The bar is fitted out as a Pullman carriage, a nod to the railway company that built the hotel, in smoky oak and backlit walls, around a black marble counter set with blocks of green light by Patrick Jouin.

Le Menzeh was the first building put up on the site, and for years it was called Le Marabout; legend says a holy man watched over the hotel from it. It is a small pavilion ringed by terraces, in the green quiet of the gardens.

The Salon de Thé opened with the 2020 renovation. It is an intimate room of deep sofas and armchairs, with blue seats by Patrick Jouin beside traditional Moroccan floor lamps, and it opens onto an Andalusian patio full of light. A crystal chandelier hangs above it all.

L'Œnothèque is where the sommeliers keep their finds, more than 2,000 rare vintages lying side by side in softly lit cabinets. Above the single table, a chandelier of braided rope, made by Berber craftsmen, hangs from a skylight that lets the daylight in.