Swiss Tea Expert Trades Geneva for Moroccan Guesthouse Adventure

In 1994, the Swiss woman bought the Betjeman & Barton tea shop in Carouge with the financial support of a friend. "The beginning of a thirty-year adventure. I think what made me love this world is that tea is always an invitation to travel. Gradually, I became, somewhat despite myself, an expert in this field, which was not as popular as it is today. I started tastings of fine teas, food and tea pairings, I collaborated with the Wine School in Changins. Around me, I gathered a team of enthusiasts, including my dear Marie, who started working with me when she was only 19," Véronique confides to the newspaper La Tribune de Genève.

But an encounter in Morocco would change the course of her life. "In 2007, after thirteen years entirely devoted to the shop, I decided to go on vacation to Morocco. I arrived in the Ouarzazate region, in the Drâa Valley, and I fell in love with the place. I told myself that, whatever happens, I would have a house here. A little later, I met Abdellah, who was born in the surrounding mountains. I’m 40, I sell tea in Switzerland and I have a Buddha bust in my apartment. He’s six years younger than me, comes from a family of eight children and is Muslim," she explains.

The Breton woman doesn’t forget her project to settle in Morocco one day. While managing her tea shop, she undertakes to rehabilitate an old rammed earth house in Morocco, precisely in Abdellah’s native village, who has been her husband since 2008. "While both working in Carouge, we manage the construction work and its uncertainties from a distance. In my head, I know exactly what I want, from the look of the building to the color of the fabrics to the smallest object. After twelve years of work, our kasbah opened its doors in October 2019 in euphoria, only to close them again in early 2020 in the most horrible uncertainty due to Covid," she recounts.

After the reopening of the establishment in October 2022, the couple decided to leave everything in Geneva to settle in Morocco. On March 22, 2025, Véronique hands over her tea shop to Marie "to live this third phase of [her] life in Morocco". "It’s with peace of mind that I handed the keys to Marie. My daily life now is an ochre earth house in the heart of this magnificent valley. It’s this vibrant light. It’s this silence. And if I still serve tea, it’s in a minty and very sweet version. But always to welcome guests."