Since the late 1920s, Marseille has had a bit of a shady, sinister reputation (remember The French Connection?) with the appellation ‘Wicked City,’ according to Nicholas Hewitt’s book of the same name. But its Mediterranean setting is quite remarkable, and its architecture renown. In addition to the usual Palais Longchamp and Notre-Dame de la Garde, I wanted to check out Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation, a modernist housing tower located in the city. I had previously posted about the unforgivable Parisian high rise designs in the Plan Voisin – but this modernist landmark in the sunny city seemed almost livable!

Another architectural sight on this trip was the one major Gaudi project I had missed on my previous Barcelona visit – the Casa Batllo. Similar in many ways to the Casa Mila, Gaudi’s Catalan Modernism – with its natural curves and flowers and ceramics and tiles – could hardly be more different than the straight, rational, clean lines of Le Corbusier!

Other Spanish sites included Malaga (Picasso’s birthplace) and Alicante, as well as Cueta (a part of Spain I hadn’t even realized existed until very recently, given its physical location in Northern Africa).

I had somehow pictured Casablanca with palm trees & verandas & ceiling fans & hookas….. you know, like in the movie (actually filmed in Burbank!). But it was anything but. It was really very industrial and gritty, more what I had imagined Liverpool to be like — except that Liverpool wasn’t what I expected either (much more upscale there!)

But Tangier and Rabat were closer to expectations, and of course an important requirement was a visit to the ‘Kasbah’ in Rabat.