43 | Viking Explorer Society News
LOCATION TWO: THE MODERNIST CORE
No sooner have I taken a seat at an al fresco
table at Café de France, one of Casablanca's
most famous coffee shops, than I'm receiving
an involuntary shoeshine from a lurking
middle-aged man scratching for a dirham, to
which I oblige.
The café is right in front of the Place des
Nations Unies (United Nations Square),
nowadays traversed by Casablanca's
gleamingly modern trams, and around the
corner from what is known locally as the
magnificent "street of seven architectural
styles".
Row after row of whitewashed office and
apartment buildings stretch along either side
of Boulevard Mohammed V, a staggering
showcase of early 20th-century architectural
schools from art nouveau to art deco and
neo-Moorish to streamline moderne. Here in
this elegant—though these days slightly
shabby—precinct you can readily imagine
Bogart's imaginary Rick would have had an
apartment behind one of the filigreed
facades.
Tucked away off this monumental main
drag is the 1929 art deco Cinema Rialto, its
name proudly emblazoned in scarlet-coloured
sign writing against an off-white curved
facade.
LOCATION THREE: RICK'S CAFÉ
In an effort to inject some Casablanca-like
romance to Casablanca, someone, rather
cleverly, dreamt up the idea of recreating the
famed Rick's Café Americain from the film
never shot there.
Like the film itself, Rick's has been a major
hit, but since its menu doesn't feature a single
Moroccan dish, I've elected to respectfully
give it the flick in favour of lunch at the
Clockwise, from top:
The Hassan II Mosque at
sunset; Rick's Café; Quartier
Habous
