For the serious shoppers in Marrakech

Marrakesh has a whole district of designers located on the outskirts of Marrakech along the road to Safi. It’s called Sidi Ghanem and if you’re serious about shopping, it’s the place to head for.
It does not look chic – in fact it’s the industrial area of Marrakech with factories, stoneworks and plumbing stores BUT the true seeker can also find designer stores and great merchandise.
The layout is not at all a confusing labyrinth like the medina of Marrakech. It’s laid out on a grid system with all roads at right angles to one another. Click here for a map of Sidi Ghanem Marrakesh http://www.sidighanem.net/plan-sidighanem-marrakech-maroc.php

Most of the interesting stores are along the first two East-West streets but there are a couple of stores worthy of going to the furthest street north. Newer stores are opening up now along the north-south road that leads to Targa.
Many of the places are a long walk away from one another so rather than slogging along the streets in the heat, the best way to do it is to either hire a car or hire a grand taxi for a day or half a day and the driver chauffeurs you from place to place.
You can stop for lunch at a great French bistro restaurant on 517, rue principale - Quartier industriel Sidi Ghanem called LE ZINC – great food, reasonable prices. The website: www.durandtraiteur.com
Open for lunch every day except Sunday and dinner Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

We will highlight some of the stores in the coming days. Today we are focusing on a linen store, PRETTY LINGE, www.prettylinge.com Unit 317 on the first floor on Telephone number 05 24 33 58 83, cell for Soundouss 06 61 23 83 73.
We bought some of our bed linens in Riad Chi-Chi at this store – notably the embroidered pillowcases.
The owner, Soundouss produces beautiful bed linens in pure Egyptian cotton, percale and cotton satin with lovely embroidery on them – you can choose the pattern and colour you want. You can also have towels, bathrobes embroidered with your initials. She also has some small household items, children’s items and lots of lovely gift ideas.