Tangier American Legation Museum

Morocco was, surprisingly, the very first country to recognise the fledgling United States, and this was the first piece of American real estate abroad (look for the letter of thanks from George Washington to Sultan Moulay Suleyman). It is also the only US National Historic Landmark on foreign soil, and undoubtedly the only one that contains an American flag in the form of a Berber rug. But you don’t have to care about American history to visit the Legation. The elegant five-storey mansion holds an eclectic collection that, in classic Tangerine fashion, resists categorisation. An impressive display of paintings and prints is a dreamy trip through the Tangerine past through the eyes of its artists, most notably the Scotsman James McBey, whose hypnotic painting of his servant girl, Zohra, has been called the Moroccan Mona Lisa – her eyes will follow you around the room, as he must have her. A special room is dedicated to Paul Bowles and the Beat Generation. The romantic map room upstairs contains walls lined with ancient parchments and diplomatic mementoes, including a hilarious letter from the US consul recounting his gift of a lion from the sultan in 1839. It is at this point you realise that you have entered the plot of an exotic historical novel.