Fez

We awoke to a fine day: this is the sun rising over Fez (also known as ‘Fes’). 

Located between the sea and the Middle Atlas mountains, Fez has been a world heritage site since 1981; it is the crown jewel of the 4 Moroccan imperial cities: it shines with its Arabo-Andalusian artistic treasures.

We stopped at one of the beautiful gates to the medina then walked through the 14th century Jewish quarter (mellah). This took us also past the kasbah, a walled fortress.

We drove up then to look at the views over Fez from the 16th century fortifications high up on a hill.

Fez is particularly renown for its old medina, Fes El-Bali, dating from the 9th century.

We first visited a ceramic factory to watch the artisans making cups, tagines, everything you could think of decorated with brightly coloured tiles or hand-painted.

From here we walked through a small portion of the medina (which is 720 acres in area!) with 9400 alleys: a real maze. We kept pretty much together but a couple of us got ‘lost’ a few times; fortunately Khalid our Intrepid guide wasn’t far behind while our local guide Idriss strode on ahead. It was packed with people either moving from A to B or stopping to shop at the stalls and shops lining the alleys; occasionally someone would come up from behind with a cart or a mule loaded with goods and trying to get through.

In the tanning district, Chouara, we gladly accepted the mint leaves offered to help to alleviate the smells. And of course there was a myriad of shoes, bags, wallets, jackets, etc. for purchase.

After a visit to a musem at an old university in the medina, we (finally!) had lunch after some further walking. It comprised a number of dishes of various vegetables and lentils plus bread; followed by the famous chicken pie: the pastilla (or b’stilla) a traditional Andalusian dish. Plus mint tea of course plus sliced fruit to finish.

A further walk to a fabric shop: cushion covers, pashminas, tablecloths, etc.

We were pretty well ‘done’ by this time and arrived back at the hotel about 5 p.m. where we were happy to call it a day. We have an early start in the morning for the 4-hour drive to Chefchaouen.

There were nice views of the city bathed in evening light from our hotel balcony.