Smara, the Forbidden City: Being the Journal of Michel Vieuchange While Traveling Among the Independent Tribes of South Morocco and Rio de Oro

by Michel Vieuchange and Jean Vieuchange

Book Overview

They say all true stories end in death. Smara, The Forbidden City is a true story. In the fall of 1930, a young Frenchman named Michel Vieuchange staggered out of the Moroccan desert into the town of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0880011467
• ISBN13: 9780880011464
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Lots of Fun!!!

...over the past three decades I have traveled to some of the cities listed in the book. I found it great reference reading, and a lot of fun, as I passed through the region. Well worth the price and adding to your North African library. BTW - at least one of the grandchildren of an important Moroccan named in the book was to be found in a Smara house referenced. He'll spin a great yarn, to two, over some mint tea that will add to your understanding of the book. Enjoy!

Unforgettable

The experiences described by Vieuchange are somehow so tangible, that they become like one's own memories or dreams. It could be viewed as a futile, insignificant story, however, there is something in the way Vieuchange throws himself into oblivion for a dream that sleeps in a corner of all of us.

one of the most amazing travel journals

Stumbled onto this small work on a back shelf and bought it for a quick read 15 years ago. I have never stopped thinking about it. It is the personal journal of a young romantic on a personal quest seeking a rumored city lost in the desert of Morocco. The danger, pain and ultimate loss of his life to illness far from home is punctuated by his momentary view of the ruins, which to the true romantic, overshadowed all else. You can put yourself in his place on every page and feel his pain and exhiliration. The book is testimony to his brother who followed his trail to find the truth after his failure to return, and found the journal with the nuns who nursed him till his death. It is truly a gem in the travel book genre.

real traveler +++

An amazingly real account from the journals. Steeped in the romantic tradition of solo travel, the account begins in hope and ends in the still silence of illness where no words can be written, though the flicker of hope undoubtedly held on in this man's breast till the end. It is as honest and immediate account of a personal adventure of great risk and pain as can be found in the twentieth century. All travelers should read and admire.... though none should follow.