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On Sunday morning Evelyne, Monique and Emma, all recently retired, meet for coffee and a chat. Overhead the gulls wheel, the air is full of the spray of the Atlantic breakers and the fishermen land their catch in blue boats a few yards away.
But the three French
women, aged 65, 69 and 59 respectively, do not live in Brittany, in Biarritz or in the other seaside resorts once favoured by the French elderly for their retirement. They live in the Moroccan port town of Essaouira, 160km west of Marrakesh.
The three, all of whom have moved to Essaouira in the past year, are among tens of thousands of European citizens now moving to what is becoming the hottest retirement destination in the world: the "Costa del Couscous".
"Once everyone spoke about the Cote d'Azur, then the Costa del Sol, now it is Morocco," said Anne Locquet, an estate agent in Essaouira. "They are pouring in. More and more every day."
Although British, Italian and Spanish immigrants are among the wave of newcomers, the vast majority are French. Attracted by the sun, cheap property and tax breaks, their numbers have rocketed in the past three years. There are cheap flights, and French is widely spoken in the former colony that retains strong cultural links - couscous was recently voted the most popular single dish in France.
Alain Felix, a former fighter pilot who recently arrived in the city of Fez, said that he was leaving behind a "sad and expensive" France.
In Marrakesh, local authorities say that they have issued 8000 residence permits to French nationals, many retired.
The Institut Francais, the French Government's cultural centre in the city, is now tailoring parts of its programme to suit elderly citizens. In Meknes, a small industrial city near Fez, in the north of Morocco, 1000 foreigners - most of them from France - have now registered with the town hall. As only a fraction register, the total number of retired French in Morocco is not known, but some estimates put it as high as 50,000.
"It has exploded exponentially," said Laurent Paul Alteresco, director of Repimmo.com, an estate agency that offers retirement properties in Morocco. "We get 30,000 [website] visitors and 400 serious inquiries a week."
Monique Benotman, a former teacher from Jura has been in Essaouira for 18 months. She said she wanted "some sun and to do some good" and now teaches French to poor children in the streets around her flat in the old part of the city.
Evelyne Feraud, from Aix-en-Provence in the south of France, has launched a jewellery workshop, targeting her compatriots who visit Essaouira as tourists. "The problem in France is tax and all the regulation. It is much easier here. Provence is beautiful but expensive. If I could have all I have here back home, I would have stayed there - but I can't."
Many of the new immigrants come from areas favoured by the 500,000 Britons who own property in France, attracted to the villages of Provence, the Gers, the Dordogne or Languedoc by lower property prices, a better climate, better public services and a higher quality of life.
However, if foreign buyers in France are forcing prices up to levels unaffordable for locals, overseas buyers in Morocco are having the same effect.
In Marrakesh, property in the old centre is now out of reach for ordinary people. On the city's outskirts, vast blocks of flats are being built to accommodate a rapidly growing and young population. Such projects compete for scarce water and electricity with complexes aimed at tourists and the elderly from overseas.
Few in Morocco are prepared to openly criticise Government policy, but there is anger that while a conservative French Administration tightens laws to restrict immigration from former colonies in North Africa, the Moroccan Government is doing all it can to encourage movement in the opposite direction.
"We can't go to France and we can't even buy in our own cities and that's not a good thing for us, for the country, for our pride," said Khaled ben Abdullah, a 22-year-old cobbler in Marrakesh.
Some analysts fear the influx of foreigners could prompt a backlash, even fuelling the growth of Islamist sentiment among the hitherto predominantly moderate Muslim Moroccans.
The country has been hit by a series of bomb attacks and at recent elections the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) secured the second-largest vote. Yet the Mayor of Meknes, the only city in Morocco run by the PJD, said the party welcomed the influx from abroad. "As long as people respect our traditions and our identity, we encourage foreign people to come to live among us. Not only do they boost the economy but they help to break down cultural barriers," Boubaker Belkora said.
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