Weekend Perspective: Colors of Venice

Calm before the storm. Seen from the Casa Tre Oci, Giudecca.

Back to the Maghreb

From the Riad 7 Terrace, the Oum Er-Rbia River Delta meets the Atlantic.

A perfect ray illuminates El Jedida's Portuguese Cistern, UNESCO World Heritage from the 1500s.

Arcade frames minaret at Hassan II in Casablanca.

“Bonjour!”

“Bonjour!” I respond in surprise to innocently smiling children (evidently just out of school for the day, given their smart uniforms and bright magenta backpacks).

They notice me, blonde and pale, looking a tiny bit out-of-place as I walk toward an entrance of the medina in Azemmour. Some of them wave - girls with thick, curly hair in braided pigtails, and skinny boys with short cuts and a missing tooth.

I cannot help but smile at how sweet and friendly they are, how innocent, welcoming and, at the same time, mature they seem compared to the average European child their age.

Bonjour indeed! I couldn’t be happier to be welcomed back to the Maghreb in such fashion (this time in Morocco, after almost two years away).