a conversation over breakfast in Morocco

Context: The family visited for Christmas. It was great, number one, because I got to be with THEM! Also it was great because it gave me an opportunity to play tour guide and go to places I hadn't had the opportunity to go yet, like Tangiers (Morocco). It's only a 40-minute ferry ride from the tip of the Iberian peninsula in Tarifa (Spain). We took a great tour of Morocco with our tour guide, who called himself "Aziz-Number-One", and had a tour-guide friend called "Ali-the-Frog". Aziz-Number-One made a point of indicating all the doors in the city and in the Kasbah that Henri Matisse had painted during a two-year stint in Tangiers during the early 20th century. The day after our tour, at breakfast in our hotel (whose elevator lacked a closing sliding door so that you could see every floor as you passed it), I had a conversation with my parents after Becky and Nate had left that went something like this (don't worry, I got permission to share this on the blog, as long as I wasn't "too hard" on my mom, who I love a TON. Please keep in mind that she had had very little sleep on the plane 2 days before, and her oldest daughter had given her very little time to recover before pushing the whole family out the door to a restless bus-ride and ferry ride. I tell this story with much love, mom!):

Mom: Well, wow, I had no idea that Henri Matisse had painted all those doors!

Dad: Those are some good views.

Cat: Yeah, I didn't know he had spent all that time in Morocco either.

Mom: I mean, I'm surprised they don't put plaques there or something - you'd think people would want to preserve a door a little more if it had been painted by Henri Matisse.

[Dad and Cat give each other looks with raised eyebrows, and then look at Mom].

Cat: Wait...you don't think he actually painted the doors, do you? When Aziz said he painted them, he meant he painted them on canvas...

Dad: [Cracking up...unable to contain himself...] Ha ha.... [more red-faced laughter]

Mom: Oh...[starts laughing, realizing her misinterpretation of Aziz's words]...ha ha...oh, wow, that explains a lot! Wow...I mean, I was thinking like 'How did Henri Matisse do it? Did he just walk up to people and say 'Can I paint your door?'' - I mean...I thought people must have been really honored to have Henri Matisse paint their doors and so they let him...hee hee....ah ha ha...

Cat: [Also cracking up] Ha ha...oh ha...woooo...

Dad: [Red-faced, doubled over...] Hee hee!

Mom: Ah! Ah ha ha - I mean...oooh, wow. WOW. Ha ha [Johnson giggle/laugh, which can only be truly replicated by the Johnson women...my cousins and aunts/uncles on the Johnson side will understand this]...


So, I leave you with these couple photos of the doors in Tangiers that were painted by Henri Matisse.