FIBRE OPTIC REACHES MARRAKECH.
This important development is relatively new in Marrakech (unlike Casablanca which has had fiber for some time) and we're happy to say that BK has now been connected to the new network. Good news for all those who like to stay in touch with friends and family (or even the office!) Whilst on holiday.
NEW SKILLS IN THE BK KITCHEN
Back in March, only a week or so before lockdown, we arranged for a top French chef to run a short course for our kitchen brigade on the production of 'amuses bouches', those little canapés and other appetisers so appreciated with an aperitif or while awaiting the arrival of the first course of a meal. Our thanks go to Joseph and Fabienne Tortola, French owners of the excellent gastronomic restaurant, l'Espérance, in Le Buisson, Dordogne. We were concerned that in the many months that have elapsed since March our own chef, Youssef, and his team would have forgotten much of what they had learned back in March, having had no opportunity to apply their new skills. Happily, however, we have been assured that this is not so as they have been practising on their families at home!
MUSIC AT BK
We've had some fun during lockdown reviewing all our music tracks and choosing lots of new ones (thank you Spotify!), many of them previously unknown to us. All have been chosen to ensure an appropriate musical background in certain areas of the hotel throughout the day: mainly light classical music and cool jazz at breakfast, some of the more melodic Arabic and, specifically, Moroccan music during the day and jazz or contemporary western music during evenings in the Bar, Restaurant and Moroccan Lounge. Music at BK is not piped throughout the hotel as we understand that silence, too, is appreciated by most, especially in certain places such as the peaceful pool area.
LOCKDOWN AT BK.
It's been a long time since March when, in common with all other hotels in Morocco, we were required to close our doors to visitors. Directors Tom Bruce-Mitford and his Moroccan wife, Nora, who run Les Borjs on behalf of Tom's parents, have been living in lockdown ever since together with Yasmine, their young daughter. Eight months ago Yasmine could walk no more than a few steps. These days she treats the hotel's main patio as her personal playground around which she runs or pedals energetically on her tricycle. At 22 months, she has also just started to talk, if you can call it that, with the occasional word being recognisably English, French or Arabic!
ONE BENEFIT OF LOCKDOWN.
Despite the havoc it has caused for businesses everywhere, the Covid outbreak has provided us with the welcome and unexpected opportunity to carry out certain improvements at the hotel, something difficult to do when BK is full of visitors. The bulk of improvements have involved painting and decorating, especially doors, windows and menzehs (the big wooden box windows prominent in the main courtyard and pool area), all of which needed more than a lick of paint where the weather (partly rain but mainly sun) has taken its toll.
NEW BOOK 'CREATING LES BORJS' .
A few months ago, we decided to revise and expand the photo album we produced back in 2009 on the work involved in creating Les Borjs de la Kasbah. We hope that the new edition, enhanced by the addition of numerous photographs and some more detailed text, will be appreciated as much as the previous version seems to have been when, once again, hopefully in February, we open our doors to visitors from around the world.