April 29 and 30th Exploring Fez, Morocco

We arrived at our Riad Andalib in the old Medina (Fés el-Bali and Fés el-Jdid) at 1 PM, and proprietor Reibal Idrissi sat down with us and gave us almost an hour briefing about what to do and how to avoid problems, be successful bargainers, etc. We were served the traditional mint tea and a common pastry called kaab el-ghzal ("gazelle's horns"), which is filled with almond paste and topped with sugar. The other treat he served us was Fekkas (fik-kas) which is a dry, hard, crunchy, slightly sweet cookie with a licorice-like flavor which reminded us of biscotti. We have a junior suite on the third floor ($130/night) and with no elevator we were thankful to have some strong young men carry our bags up to the room.

Covered courtyard of our riad

 Armed with a marked map he gave us, we took a cab to the top gate of the medina quarter and entered at the Blue Gate, (Bab Bou Jeloud) and started walking down the main route, Talaa al-Kebir stopping for lunch at a British-owned riad/restaurant called “Clock Cross-Cultural Café”. The camel burgers were quite good! 

Blue Gate at top of the bazaar

Fez (or Fes) is one of the world's most spectacular city-museums and an exotic medieval labyrinth—mysterious, mesmerizing and sometimes overwhelming. This UNESCO world heritage site is a step back in time. This medina is the oldest and largest in Africa, dating from around 800 AD when the Arabs came and started settling and trading.

Some alleys only a yard or two wide

The medina spreads over two hills and into the valley between them so we started walking downhill, as after a 4 hour stroll we should end up in the valley area where our hotel is located. If we continue up the other side of the hill we would be in the Fés el-Jdid area, a residential area which Reibal said there was not much of interest.

We enjoyed maneuvering our way through crowded passages sometimes illuminated by shafts of sunlight streaming through thatched roofs and other times just being out in the sun, the cries of "Balek!" ("Watch out!") from drivers pushing overloaded mules, horses or just big push carts were definitely to be heeded. These animals were moving through at such a pace it was hard to get a picture.

Mules and donkeys plus carts for transport

There is a riot of color everywhere from the items displayed for sale including the ladies’ jellabas and the zellig mosaic decorations on the various fountains, medresa’ and mosque entrances. The sounds of locals bartering, coppersmiths hammering, and citywide call to prayer make it a sensory overload, plus you have to keep an eye out for where you are walking as the cobble stones can be uneven. The smell from the damascene rose petals where the shops are selling spices and rose water is one of my favorite experiences.

Rose petals for sale

This medina is not only a souk but you have all the craftsman working here in the various souks.

Spices for sale

We missed a couple of the sites we had marked on our map but will go back and try to find them tomorrow afternoon.

Chicken Pastille in foreground

We had dinner in our Riad and tried some of the local specialties; chicken pastille.  Reibal wanted to be sure we would like the combination of sweet and salty flavors. Traditionally the pie is filled with pigeon, but it is often prepared with shredded chicken which is how we enjoyed it. The chicken is slow-cooked with spices and then wrapped in a crisp, thin layers of a phyllo like dough like a present; the mixture includes cinnamon and ground almonds. Pastilla is usually served only at special occasions due to the complexity of its preparation but in Fez it can be found more readily available.

We enjoyed a bottle of local  wine like pale rose' (called gris here) from the area. This riad has a liquor license which it took Reibal one year to finally get.

The next day, Wednesday April 29^th, we hired a car and driver for $30 to drive us to some of the sights around Fez for about 3 hours. We went to the Bourg Nord, Merenid Tombs and the old Kasbah des Cherarda for views over Fez. 

Old Fez behind Leslie

We enjoyed the Dar Batha Museum which is in a Hispano-Moorish palace from over 100 years ago. The exhibits of clothing, jewelry and woodcarving were of interest as well as the building itself. We also drove through the old Mellah (Jewish) quarter outer walls. We did not see a good parking spot so we continued on our way. We went to an Andalusian style park with interesting old trees, and visited a place where they were making local ceramics and tiles.

Fez market from the opposite direction

 Here they showed us the process, from first firing, glazing, cutting mosaic chips in different shapes, and adding tin metal to finished pieces to have a metal-over glaze look.

Chipping pieces to make mosaic shapes

 The ceramic and tile work is beautiful but it is not cheap! A small fountain in tile cost $5,000, but they told us this was OK because it included shipping! We checked the prices of various items, but none of them seemed to be a bargain.

Local women also paint ceramics

Painting ceramic after first firing

In the afternoon, we returned to the bazaar and visited the places that we had missed on our first visit down the long maze of alleys, including a couple of madrassas and the leather tanning area. The madrassas are hundreds of years old and extremely ornately decorated.

We found the leather dying area which was smelly, so we were given a sprig of mint to put to our nose to reduce that annoyance. It was explained that the skins of cows, camels, goats and sheep were cured there in big vats of pigeon poop, lime and water. The pigeon poop helps to soften the skins . The skins were then colored in the vats of natural or synthetic dyes, all on lower rooftops below us. 

Lime vats (white) at top and dying
vats (brown) below

Here in Morocco they have many of the natural dyes, indigo for blue, poppies for red, henna for orange, cedar wood for brown, mint is green and saffron for yellow but an alternative cheaper option for yellow is the skins of pomegranates which can give you shades from yellow to orange depending if you use olive oil. It was interesting to see this leather cooperative at work but even to get to the various viewing terraces, a tourist faces ongoing pressure to purchase.  The leather work here in Morocco is very high quality and many of the old Saharan tribes have beautiful bags, sandals and other useful equipment from leather.  

Inspecting dried skins on roof

We enjoyed a last wonderful dinner in our Riad and enjoyed the Chicken Pastilla and Leslie even looked up the recipe. We packed up our bags and prepared for our trip to Marrakesh.