NYK—mag 0225
NYK—mag
0325
Sonic Journey on Wheels;
This is a story about Morocco told through pedals and sound.
text: Antoine Rouaud
pictures: Antoine Rouaud and Grégoir Fauquenoi
editing of pictures: Grégoir Fauquenoi
Salam, labès ?
In April 2025, my friend Grégoire and I set off for a month on bicycles, chasing the Maghreb’s heartbeat. For us, biking is more than transport, it’s the purest way to travel. It grounds you. It strips away the illusion of control. On a bike, you welcome uncertainty, and in return, it gives you moments no itinerary could plan. You’re reminded you’re just human, vulnerable to weather, road, and the unknown.
Today, travel often means flying somewhere for a week, sleeping in hotels, booking guides, and packing each minute with certainty. It’s safe, comfortable, unchanging. We’ve forgotten that travel should unsettle you, stretch your understanding, and leave you seeing the world differently. With a bike, there’s no cocoon. You feel every hill, every gust of wind. You draw curiosity from strangers and trade comfort for connection.
Morocco felt like the perfect place for this. Coming from France, we carried both proximity and prejudice. The Maghreb was familiar in language, but distant in lived experience. I worried mass tourism might make it hard to meet the country’s true spirit, here we will see if the culture is still alive and which direction it is taking.
According to UNESCO, culture is defined as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual, and emotional features that characterize a society or social group. This definition encompasses not only arts and letters, but also lifestyles, fundamental human rights, value systems, traditions, and beliefs.
For me music is the perfect reflection of culture, in a song all its traits can be englobed and shared to the world. When traveling I think it is essential to dive into the music. It says something about the different groups of people you will meet, how they talk about their daily life's, the way they share their emotions, the way they gather and feast together. We all listen to music everyday and with all the platforms and social media we consume we are slowly losing our interest for digging and finding unique sounds.
How it began
It was March 27th when our journey began, stepping onto a ferry just a few kilometers from home in Sète. Two days later, we would land in Nador. Our first goal was to reach Fez quickly, skipping the flatlands so we’d have enough time to arrive in Agadir by April 18th. There, two friends would join us for five days before parting ways in Marrakech. From there, we’d take a bus to Meknes, then return to the saddle for the final stretch back to Tangier.
For this story, I’ve divided the trip into four chapters: starting in the steep climbs of the Atlas Mountains, descending into the vast silence of the Sahara Desert, following the Atlantic to Essaouira’s wind-swept coast, and finally reaching the Pearl of the Strait — Tangier — where Arabic and Rif traditions meet the echoes of Andalusia.
Note: If you want to feel the text and the atmosphere better, I invite you to check this playlist where you will find the songs mentioned in the text and more. The ranking in the playlist is following the story, don’t hesitate to listen while reading ;)