Fes (4/10-11, 2007)

If you’re going to visit only one city in Morocco, make it Fes! It’s everything you imagine when you think of Morocco: crowded Bazaars, small passageways, men working in the tanneries, mosques, old tradition…

Kimberly

For photos, click: here.

Fes

We arrived in Fes in the evening, just in time for sunset cocktails at the posh Palais Jamais hotel. The drinks were overpriced, but the view of the entire medina (old city) was incredible…especially as the evening calls to prayer echoed across the city.



After our fancy drinks, we headed off for the real treat of the night…a traditional Moroccan feast at Dar Masmoudi. This place is one of many riads: old houses that have recently been restored and converted into hotels. We would have loved to have stayed here, but just eating dinner in the traditional dining room was incredible. We started with some Pigeon Pastilla (my absolute favorite dish…fowl cooked in a pastry with almonds, eggs, cinnamon, nuts, and powdered sugar…it’s like a desert for dinner!). Then we had several more courses of vegetables, couscous, tagine, and finally dessert and tea. It was wonderful!

The next day we headed off to see the city. We started out at the Royal Palace. We could visit only the main gate, but that was impressive enough. The detail in the mosaic tile, gilded doors, and carved marble was incredible! Then we explored a little around the Mellah, or Jewish ghetto. Morocco has actually been a safe haven for the Jews over the centuries and maintained a large Jewish population until the creation of Israel. Jews started arriving in full force in the country in the mid 15th century during the Spanish inquisition. They were not fully accepted into Moroccan life and very much stayed within their neighborhoods. The Aben Danan Synagogue highlighted this interesting intersection of Jewish and Arabic influences…with mosaic tile décor.

Fes is well known as a city of artisans. So we set off to visit some of their workshops and see them in action. We toured a ceramic factory and saw tagine dishes being thrown and glazed – and mosaic tiles being chipped and organized into intricate patterns. We visited a small brocade workshop…literally just a room tucked away behind a door in the medina where several men were cranking away at large rooms making beautiful fabrics. The definite highlight though was seeing the tanneries! You’ll likely recognize the tanneries in our photos from some vary famous series shown in National Geographic. The sight of men working in these large vats of both lime (to soften the hides) and dyes (to color them) was absolutely incredible!

Wandering around the medina was a feat in itself! We were very happy to have hired a good guide. We definitely would have gotten lost had we been on our own (not to mentioned hassled by all the vendors and “want to be” guides). But the most important reason to hire a guide is that we never would have known where to go on our own! Our guide would literally knock on a wooden door and take us inside to a group of metal workers, fabric weavers, or Fes makers. It was such a treat!

I highly recommend spending a few days in Fes to soak up the incredible sense of history, culture, and Moroccan daily life!

Dar Masmoudi
Tel 212 (0)35 63 56 85
www.darmasmoudi.ma
darmasmoudi@menara.ma
darmasmoudi@yahoo.fr
3 Derb El Meter, Zenjfour, Fes
(near Palais Jamais)