When France took control of Morocco in 1912, Marshal Lyautey decided to leave the old cities alone and build new ones beside them, and Rabat's Ville Nouvelle is the best-known result. Laid out by the architect and planner Henri Prost on a grid of boulevards, the district has wide avenues shaded by palm and orange trees, white buildings with green-tiled roofs and a calm, elegant style that mixes European Art Deco with Moroccan details. Rabat has been the capital since 1912, and these avenues were built as its seat of government.
Avenue Mohammed V is the spine, a long boulevard running from the railway station past the Parliament, the Post Office and the main cafes, and it is a fine place to walk in the evening, when families stroll and light spills from the cafe windows. The railway station, Rabat Ville, built in the 1920s, is among the handsome buildings in the country. The Cathedral of Saint Peter, a white modernist church, stands nearby. Together the buildings show the confidence of a colonial project and the Moroccan flavour that gradually transformed it.
Behind the planned city the old medina still keeps its narrow lanes, and the red walls of the Almohad period run along the city's edge, with a great gate, Bab er-Rouah, one of the finest. The sea breeze keeps Rabat cooler than inland cities, and in summer the beaches fill with families. The contrast between order and bustle is Rabat's charm.
For motorcyclists, it is a pleasant capital to ride in, with sensible roads, though traffic is dense at peak hours. Watch the tram lines on Avenue Hassan II and lane changes by taxis. Fuel is simple to find, and parking for bikes is possible on side streets. Fresh seafood in the old port and mint tea on a terrace are the pleasures of the evening, and the Atlantic light is gentle.