During a stay in Marrakech in 2000, fascinated by the medina, I decided to settle there and began to walk the streets (derb in Darija, Moroccan Arabic) in search of riads, on behalf of an agency of the square. Since 2009, Côté Medina, my real estate agency, specialized in riads and traditional houses of charm, is the result of this field experience.

Why the Medina? For its raw strength of life: human warmth, joy, creativity, resourcefulness, availability, humour, smells, colours, mutual assistance… an explosion of sensations and emotions.

To continue to live, to feel, to feel this new universe. Personally, the Medina of Marrakech is what led me to settle in Morocco. It is rich of its inhabitants, its artisans, its merchants, its musicians, its onlookers…

Its intense activity of anthill, coupled with its small village atmosphere, still fascinate me today. Human warmth, between-help, spontaneity, creativity… I hope you will also appreciate!

Why riads and not villas or apartments? To do this job in the Medina, is to have the chance to discover places that have a soul, that plunge us several centuries back, that transport us in the art of Arab-Muslim living. Acquiring a riad is not insignificant, at the antipodes of a villa in a residence. Living in a riad is also necessarily interested in local life.

In the medina, we mix, we rub each other, we don’t go unnoticed, we have to deal with each other, we have to be interested in difference to understand it. I hope to be, modestly, a guide that gives you some keys to understanding, in addition to the key to your future riad.