Text Serge Barret / Photos Alain Parinet
These photos are everywhere. Always in black and white, they abound on the walls of institutions, museums and old forts, but also in the beautiful books in the rooms of luxury hotels or in the free magazines aimed at tourists. They are the national pride and represent Abu Dhabi before the discovery of oil at sea in 1958, and to say the least, they do not exude wealth. We see a very poor people, poorly dressed, dishevelled; sometimes immortalised in the company of camels against a backdrop of dunes, sometimes under a dark woollen tent, and sometimes in front of huts made of woven reeds. Wilfred Thesiger, the English explorer and cartographer who travelled through the region from 1946 to 1949, described the population in his masterpiece The Desert of Deserts like Bedouins".in loincloths or rags".
And the Abu Dhabi village then? A big nothing a few solidly-built buildings, large empty spaces, a fort, poorly-marked paths in the sand, camels everywhere and boats - dhows as they are called in the Middle East - beached. That was the town. That and a very proud society, organised under the relative authority of a sheikh who was nonetheless highly respected; the equivalent of a king, but who had great difficulty getting on with the other sheikhs in the region, particularly the one in Dubai with whom he was in perpetual conflict. In fact, the whole region was in turmoil, and that's putting it mildly. In fact, the desert, occupied by a multitude of very warlike tribes and clans, was practically on fire. To set foot on enemy sands without authorisation was to risk your life or find yourself reduced to slavery. Attacks and raids were commonplace, and stealing camels a common occupation.
Codes and customs
This is not to say that society was without code; it was even perfectly policed, on the one hand by the principles established by the Koran and, on the other, by custom, which was very strict, particularly in terms of morality and hospitality. Add to this the harsh climateIn the summer, the temperature rises to over 40°C, the nights are almost freezing, there's no rain for several years, and there's famine too.
That was for the Bedouins of the desert. But those living by the sea - Abu Dhabi has 600 km of coastline, the aptly named "pirate coast - weren't much better off. They became pearl fishermen and spent the summer at sea, for four months at a time, without ever setting foot on land. They dived from dawn for a dozen hours straight, each dive lasting around two minutes at a depth of around twenty metres. Between two dives, there was just one minute's rest, with a little more time every ten dives. At this rate, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Bedouins of the coast wouldn't last long.
And then, in 1958, came the chance of the oil ! This was followed in 1966 by the accession of Sheikh Zayed, who was very open to the world and modernity, and who replaced his brother. Finally, putting an end to endless fratricidal struggles, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was proclaimed on 2 December 1971, bringing together Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Quwain and Fujairah. In the chair, Sheikh ZayedSheikh Khalifa, who remained in power until his death at the age of 86 in 2004. Today, it is his son, Sheikh Khalifa, who is at the helm of the UAE's destiny.
Culture, after oil
During his successive terms in office, Sheikh Zayed worked to develop the country's infrastructure, but also and above all in the fields of education and health. His son is now continuing his work. Well aware of the finite nature of the oil fields, he is energetically preparing for what comes after, as the country's revenues from oil already account for just 35.1 % of GDP. The aftermath, i.e. green energy and Tourism which now account for a large proportion of the country's revenue. The will is strong, but unlike Dubai, which is happy to leave the neon lights to show off, the emphasis here is on culture. Both local and from elsewhere, particularly the West.
Witness the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which opened on 11 November 2017, and which alone has boosted the French tourism market by +21 %. That's huge, and it's set to continue, because there's no shortage of projects in the pipeline. plumeNor any big names. The Louvre, as we all know, is being built by Jean Nouvel, followed tomorrow by the Zayed National Museum by Foster + Partners, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi by Frank Gehry, the Performing Art Center by the late Zaha Hadid and the Maritim Museum by Tadeo Ando. All built on Saadiyat Island alone. The programme is clearly Pharaonic. But it's well known that when you have ambitions, you don't count.
THE LOUVRE ABU DHABI
A WORK OF ART IN ITSELF
"The most beautiful museum in the world". This was the headline that crossed the front page of Beaux-Arts Magazine, the leading visual arts publication, in December 2017, following the opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi on 11 November 2017. And that's exactly what you feel when you walk through the halls of the fabulous building designed by Jean Nouvel. More than just a building, he has created a work of art that is sure to leave its mark on the architectural history of the new century.
Basically, it's the most beautiful museum in the world It's an iconic landmark that might just justify a trip to Abu Dhabi. From a distance, from the motorway, it looks like a spaceship, a UFO from an unlikely encounter of the third kind; or even, in much more trivial terms, a large grey-blue jellyfish washed up on a harbour quay. But then, as you pass through the security gates, you are stunned: under the 180 metre diameter aluminium and stainless steel dome, heavier than the Eiffel Tower, there are fifty or so rooms, all different, white cubes linked together, alleys and public squares shaded by the eight openwork layers of a dome that lets in rays of light, like a ground floor under the tightly-packed palm trees of an oasis. At night, thousands of LEDs replace the stars.
As far as the collection is concerned, once again it's a feat. No themed rooms French, Italian, Egyptian or Greek sculpture, but a formidable scenography presenting the works by period. In one room, Mesopotamia converses with Egypt, while in another, a statue of a Buddhist sage coexists with a virgin from the 16th century.e century in Normandy. And it's the same with China, Peru or Syria... In all, 600 works from all eras in great complicity, making Jean-Luc Martinez, president of the Louvre, quite rightly say: "it's not a museum of fine arts, but a museum of civilisations". The central square of this grandiose interpretation of an oriental medina can be reserved for private parties.
Louvre Abu Dhabi. Saadiyat Cultural District, Abu Dhabi - Tel: +971 600 56 55 66 - Email : contact@louvreabudhabi.ae - Internet : www.louvreabudhabi.ae |
AL AIN
AN OASIS IN CHIAROSCURO
Just sixty years ago, it took five or six days by camel to travel from Abu Dhabi to Al Ain, on the border with the Sultanate of Oman. Today, it's just an hour and a half on the motorway, punctuated by a succession of palm trees, like the vanguard of an explosion of palm groves - seven in all - that make up the Al Ain oasis.
A must when visiting Abu Dhabi, especially as the city.., listed by UnescoAl Ain is not short of forts, with around twenty buildings scattered in and around Al Ain, as well as watchtowers and palaces. Starting with the Al Jahili palace, built at the turn of the 19th century, there are also a number of watchtowers and other palaces.e The building, now a museum, offers a glimpse of daily life in those days. High adobe walls, heavy wooden doors opening onto a vast bare courtyard, towers, a maze of corridors and nooks and crannies, staircases with too many steps and cramped rooms with virtually no openings... These forts and castles are all built to much the same design, including the one that houses the Al Ain National Museum which, in addition to the flats and reception rooms of Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, displays collections relating to the way of life of the inhabitants of Abu Dhabi in days gone by.
Then there's the coolness - albeit relative - and above all the tranquillity of the palm grove. Thousands of date palms, but also, watered by countless irrigation channels, banana and lemon trees that grow in the light filtered through the palms. It is said that Jean Nouvel was inspired by this chiaroscuro to create the dome of his Louvre. |
SHEIKH ZAYED GRAND MOSQUE AND SHEIKH'S PALACE
LHE FOLIE DES GRANDEUR
Abu Dhabi thinks big. And not just with the towers of the business district, which aren't actually all that numerous compared to those of neighbouring Dubai. It's also about religion, notably through a sublime and gigantic mosque, just as power is represented by oversizing a ceremonial palace, the simple hall of which could easily accommodate an A380.
First of all, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Undeniably inspired by the Indian Taj Mahal - that's how elegant it is - it is a must-see on any visit to Abu Dhabi. Commissioned by Sheikh Zayed and built between 1996 and 2007, based on Moroccan plans, built by the British and decorated by the Italians, the mosque can accommodate up to 31,000 worshippers outside and 9,000 in the main prayer hall... which is clearly quite a crowd. But do they really see this marvel, all these faithful who flock here on feast days? Do they catch a glimpse of the forests of columns - 1,096 in all - made of pietra dura? Do they even manage to walk on the 5,700 square metre carpet?2the largest in the world, covering the entire floor of the main prayer hall? Do they even look at its nine-tonne chandelier made of over a million Swarovski crystals? No one knows. But the fact remains that, if the spirit of paradise is in the light of this, then clearly God is truly great!
The Qasr al Watan, the sheikh's reception palace, was also built on a completely different scale. Marble everywhereIf this palace was designed to impress, then it has succeeded: it makes you feel very small indeed. The palace has two non-alcoholic restaurants.
Mosque > Al-Khaleej Al-Arabi Street - Tel: +972 2 419 1919 - Email : info@szgmc.ae - Internet : www.szgmc.ae
King's Palace > Qsar Al Watan - Tel: +972 600 544 442 - Internet : www.qasralwatan.ae |
HOTELS
Rosewood Abu Dhabi
Finally, the gleaming marble of the reception hall is not too flashy. What's more, it provides a welcome feeling of freshness in this region, where it can sometimes be literally boiling hot. The rest of the hotel has a contemporary design. clean but not too cleanThe Rosewood's rooms and suites have been designed with the utmost attention to detail, without the slightest ostentation, which is actually quite rare in the Middle East, where there is a tendency to overdo the gilding. All 189 rooms and suites have a fully glazed wall, allowing you to enjoy the lights of the skyline in the evening, as the Rosewood tower is located on Al Maryah Island, in the heart of the city and close to the shopping malls. A perfect hotel for a short, busy stay. Eight restaurants, eight meeting rooms from 25 to 1,000 people for cocktails.
Al Maryah Island. P.O. Box 41 184, Abu Dhabi, UAE. - Tel: +971 2 813 55 50 - Email: abudhabi@rosewoodhotels.com - Internet : www.rosewoodhotels.com
Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel and Villas
Right from the entrance hall, the tone is set. It's modern, resolutely period, but with a few Arabic touches, interpretations of moucharabiehs placed everywhere. There are also refreshing fountains, large terracotta pots, and above all, in the extension of the hall, a gigantic blue pool that juts out into the water. straight to sea. On its shores, punctuated by palm trees as straight as an i, a succession of cabins offer king-size mattresses where you can eat and drink Roman-style. At the end, after a duckboard walkway that avoids the hot sand, there is eight kilometres of beach and the sea... That says it all. Well, almost, because the hotel, which opened in 2011 on the island of Saadiyat, a little way from the city, also offers luxury villas set in its lush gardens, as well as an 18-hole golf course designed by Gary Player. 306 rooms, suites and villas, three restaurants, 11 meeting and event rooms for 10 to 600 people.
P.O. Box 52 007, Abu Dhabi, UAE - Tel : + 971 2 407 12 34 - Email : abudhabi.park@hyatt.com - Internet : www.abudhabi.park.hyatt.com
The Emirates Palace
It is the must, the top, the exceptional. It is a mythical place where heads of state on official visits to Abu Dhabi are received, and understandably so. The building is grandiose with its 114 domes, one of which is higher than St Peter's in Rome - it's amazing how Abu Dhabi tends to rival Rome in terms of domes. It's all in the English neo-colonial style, with interior balconies, exterior galleries, skylights, Swarovski crystal chandeliers, opaline tulip lamps, lounges arranged in all curves and others improvised with two or three armchairs placed here and there... But there are also banquettes and consoles galore, water jets, palm trees placed inside the building, enormous columns and monumental staircases. In fact, the Emirates Palace is an opera set. Outside, it's all the same. At the entrance to the building, a colossal staircase and, on the other side, kiosks galore and, above all, at the end of an esplanade, the most beautiful private beach in Abu Dhabi. 1.3 km of sand imported from Algeria, please. 302 rooms and 92 suites, ballroom for 1,100 people, 40 meeting rooms, 12 restaurants and bars, 2 swimming pools, tennis courts, spa and fitness centre.
Kempinski-The Emirates Palace. Abu Dhabi -UAE - P.O. Box 39 999 - Tel : +971 2 690 9000 - Email : info@emiratespalace.ae - Internet : www.emiratespalace.ae |
ADVENTURE IN THE DUNES
SAND ON A ROLLERCOASTER
You don't want to think you're Wilfred Thesiger, the English explorer who roamed the region after the Second World War with a few Bedouin friends; you don't want to be like him, who risked his life on camelback to cross the desert of deserts, the Rub Al Khali, a monstrosity of sand - nothing but sand - stretching from the south of Abu Dhabi all the way to Yemen; you don't want to risk the slightest attack from an enemy nomadic tribe... but, on the contrary, indulging in the welcoming comfort of an air-conditioned 4×4, you can't visit the region without a jaunt into the desert surrounding the UAE capital. Dunes, thousands of dunesSome of the roads are steep, others crescent-shaped, with 30-degree ascents, vertiginous descents and, beyond that, a terrible fear of falling flat on their faces... For all that, the adventure is without risk, as the driver is an expert in sand. But that doesn't stop him from stepping on the accelerator from time to time as he climbs a mountain of sand, and then stopping on its crest, a wheel away from the sheer drop on the other side, just to "scare the girls". An hour and a half, maybe two hours like that; from time to time, a sublimely solitary acacia tree - but where does the poor thing get the water to live? - and, when the 4×4 stops its engine, an eternal silence under an almost white sky.
Fortunately, life soon returns, in the form of the Arabian Nights Village resort, which may be a little rustic, but is beautifully integrated into this great nothing. Outside, its walls are inspired by vernacular architecture, a camel campInside, there's a restaurant and 38 room-bungalows, some inspired by the desert Bedouin style, others by the fishing Bedouin. There are also three rooms in the towers guarding the entrance, a swimming pool and, above all, an open-air theatre covered in carpets. Camel riding, dune driving, quad biking, fat biking, safari.
Arabian Nights Village > Tel : +971 2 207 8999 - Email : reservations@arabiannights.ae - Internet: www.arabiannightsvillage.com |
CAR CIRCUIT
YAS MARINA CIRCUIT
A must for incentive groups, especially those in the automotive sector. Designed by the German architect Hermann Tilke, the Yas Marina motor racing circuit is a must-see. hyper-contemporary silhouette on an artificial island 30 minutes from Abu Dhabi. The seats in its five grandstands, particularly during the professional grand prix events, are obviously hotly contested. But that's okay: if you miss out on an international event, you can just as easily attend local events, and above all, try your hand at driving Aston Martins, Mercedes-AMS GTSs and even some Formula 1 models. Just as fun, the track is open every Tuesday and Saturday evening to cyclists and joggers. Of course, you can visit the whole complex in air-conditioned cars, but you can also take a look behind the scenes, in the control rooms and... the icing on the cake, have your photo taken on the podium. The only thing missing is the bubbles from a bottle of champagne. Still...
Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management (ADMM) > Yas Marina Circuit, Yas Island. P.O Box 130001. Abu Dhabi. UAE - Tel : +971 2 659 9800 - Email : customerservice@ymc.ae - Internet : www.yasmarinacircuit.com |
GETTING THERE
Etihadthe national airline, serves Abu Dhabi twice a day from Paris CDG with a four-class Airbus 380. One of the flights is scheduled in the morning in Paris, allowing an evening arrival in Abu Dhabi, and the second takes off from Roissy in the evening for a very early morning arrival in the emirate. Etihad has also signed code-share agreements with Air France, authorising connecting flights from Bordeaux, Nice, Marseille and Toulouse. On board, comfort conditions are optimal, as Etihad has been awarded a 4-star airline rating by Skytrax. What's more, the business lounges in Paris and Toulouse are equipped with the latest technology.Abu Dhabi are available to economy class passengers, subject to payment.
Tel.: 01 57 32 43 43 - Internet: www.ethiad.ae
TO FIND OUT MORE
Abu Dhabi Tourism Office.
Tel: 01 53 25 03 52. Internet: visitabudhabi.ae (site in French).
PRACTICAL GUIDES
Petit Fûté Abu Dhabi, Petit Fûté Emirats, Lonely Planet Abu Dhabi, Un grand week end à Dubaï et Abu Dhabi, Hachette.
A must-read: The desert of deserts. Wilfred Thesiger. Terre Humaine. Ed. Plon.
