And Then There Were Three

A rather brief Cat in Rabat Public Service Announcement for Moroccan Oenophiles about which the author raises one conundrum and invites her readership to consider two possible solutions. There will be no references herein to early Genesis albums*

Surely this is a coincidence. In fact, I'd like to think that this is a coincidence in the purest, most literal sense of the word but I can't help but think that all of those slightly snarky comments I've made over the past 2 years about Allah and his un-Christian desire to see me completely deprived of sleep have finally caught up with me. But whatever the reason is - a chronological fluke or a spiteful god - the fact remains that in the last 2 ½ months, a mere handful of weeks before Mr. Cat in Rabat and I take our leave of Le Plus Beau Pays du Monde, three - three! - wine stores have opened in Rabat. Nay, not Rabat but Agdal.

First there was Nicolas which opened on the charmingly derelict Dayat Aoua in upper Agdal. A few weeks later, the slightly less well stocked and somewhat pricier La Cave du Soleil popped up like a wine-kissed mushroom on Michlifen. And now the Jewel in the Crown, Les Vignes de l'Agdal has opened its doors on Rue Sbou (across from the Marché Municipal or for those of you of a less salubrious bent, beside the Barrio Latino).

So in the realm of what the fuck? I have to ask myself, “why the alcohol-sodden flurry of decidedly un-Islamic activity?”

Is this a desperate clever attempt to convince the Secretariat General of the International Exhibitions Bureau that Morocco (specifically Tangier) is a worthy host for the 2012 World Expo? That Morocco is urbane, that it is cosmopolitan – even though you couldn’t get a bartender here to make a proper one to save his soul. I might add that Tangier’s official application included the somewhat abstruse theme, "Routes of the world, cultures connecting. For a more united world" ... the grammar and syntax of which completely eludes me. I've already made a mental note not to buy the t-shirt …

Or is this a desperate clever attempt to keep Rabat's streets awash in French wine so as to buffer the blow when Morocco effectively becomes a fundo-nation after the September elections? Perhaps Rabat's triumvirate of wine stores will – as they said in Casablanca (the film not the city) – "take the sting out of being occupied."

Assuming they’re not closed down for good.

So drink up Rabat! Revel in your three wine stores! Huzzah! At the very least, everyone here will just be a stone’s throw away from a wine store and will have no excuse not to raise a glass to Mr. CinR & I when we leave Le Plus Beau Pays du Monde.

*a band which effectively became defunct with the departure of Peter Gabriel, in spite of their desperate clever attempt to delude the public into thinking otherwise by releasing "And Then There Were Three".