King Mohammed VI Offered Support to Sarkozy After Divorce, Former French President Reveals

At the initiative of the sovereign, Nicolas Sarkozy had gone to Marrakech after his divorce and a surgical operation. "Take your sons with you, I don’t want you to be alone, I really care about it. I will introduce them to my nephews. They will have fun together," King Mohammed VI had told him during a telephone conversation. For the former French president, the successor to King Hassan II is a "man of great intelligence, very Francophile, and of a kindness that never wavers".

The first stage of the visit takes him to Marrakech, whose beauty he celebrates. "An oasis from which one can see the eternal snows of the Atlas chain is like no other place. (...) The sky is a unique blue. The paintings of Majorelle bear witness to it. They do not lie. Flowers are omnipresent. The scents are those of an Orient that would have chosen to gather entirely in this miraculous city. Art and craftsmanship have taken root there for centuries. The air is soft. The sun is guaranteed," writes Nicolas Sarkozy.

On his arrival in the ochre city, he is amazed. "When the door opened, the sight was grandiose. The Moroccan cavalry dressed in red, saber at the side, was numerous and impeccable. The king had come to welcome me. [...] The sun was at its zenith and beating hard. I was dazed by the beauty of the landscape, the noise of the immense crowd, the warmth of the welcome. The king had done things well. From the airport to his palace in the Medina, the crowd was compact perhaps ten to fifteen rows deep. Tens of thousands of people were crowding along our path," recounts the former French president.

He remembers that the people of Marrakech were shouting, singing, applauding, calling out to each other. "The noise was uninterrupted. With the king, we could not exchange a word. We could not hear each other. The cavalry of the royal army preceded us. Living through such moments allowed one to instantly understand the depth and antiquity of Moroccan culture," he recalls. He was not indifferent to the beauty of the royal palace: "The palace was sumptuous without being gaudy. Each object breathed history, tradition, the most refined taste, the most skillful craftsmanship. Everything was beautiful without anything seeming new".

One of the royal residences located in the heart of the Palmeraie where he had spent the night had also stunned him. "The place is like a paradise on earth. It is surrounded by an 80-hectare park of orange trees, lemon trees and olive trees. The Atlas appears in all its splendor," he describes. "Waking up the next morning, it was there, right in front of my terrace. The snow was sparkling. It was twenty-eight degrees and I could see it! I was having breakfast with my two sons. I would have loved for this interlude to last".