Fes – the oldest of Morocco’s 4 Imperial Capitals

We took the N8 from Azrou to Fes that passes through Ifrane. where the King has his summer palace.  With its manicured parks and ornamental lakes and Alpine-resort style houses, it is not your usually Moroccan town and is clearly a place for the wealthier Moroccans.  It looked too pristine for us and lacked the human touch of older settlements, so we didn’t stop.  It does however, have a famous landmark – The Stone Lion, where all the tourists like to stand and have their photo taken.  It stands as a reminder that lions once roamed here and was allegedly carved by an Italian prisoner of war. 

The route was very pretty, with lots of poppy fields, olive and apple trees and we even had to swerve to avoid running over a tortoise crossing the road – no kidding!

We stopped at Camping Diamant Vert N33.9905 W5.02113) for a couple of nights, which reminded us of Centre Parcs with its chalets that are at the top of the site.

Motorhomes are at the bottom of the hill next to a lovely water park and swimming pool.

The bridge across the waterpark - it wouldn't pass UK health and safety!

Our little plot - it was a luxury to get some grass as we haven’t seen any for a while, as we have been parked either on stone or sand for the last few weeks!

There were lots of interesting motor homes on this site, including

A German converted fire-engine

A South African Owned, which carried 800 litres of fuel (that's an expensive fill-up!) and even had a washing machine inside.

An old East German (from Dresden) converted truck – must have been about 30 years old.

We arranged a half-day guided tour into Fes through the campsite.  A taxi picked us up, we shared it with the South African couple and their son and 2 French people.  We met our guide Elouafi Hanaf (or Wafi as he liked to be called) by the Royal Palace and it became clear that he was going to do the tour in dual language – English and French.  Although he spoke quite quickly to toggle between the 2 languages we got a good explanation.

The gates of The Royal Palace

Inscribed to the side is a famous Arabic Poem - no idea what it says though!

Royal Gardens

The Royal guards – the red one is the oldest military dress-wear in Morocco.

The medina-city of Fez el Bali is an incredibly intricate web of lanes, alleyways and souks and if it weren’t for UNESCO adding it to their World Heritage list in 1981 much of this old city would have collapsed.

Bab Boujeloud – The western gate and the most famous in Fez

With its tiled façade - blue (traditional colour of Fez) on the outside and green (the colour of Islam) facing into the Medina

Bab Boujeloud

We were so glad we had our guide to show us where to go, although you can’t get lost if you pick up a tourist map, as there are signs showing you the way.

No donkeys allowed in here!

Wafi leading us through the narrow walls of the Medina.  He told us the temperature inside the walls cooled by 10 degrees – weren’t we glad as it was about 30 degrees and it was 4.30pm!

Lady making a sweet bread that will get rolled with honey and nuts.

The restored Water Clock consisting of 13 windows and platforms, 7 of which retain their original brass bowls.  Every hour one of its windows would open, dropping a weight down into the respective bowl.

Water Clock

Date seller

Banging out a design on tin and copper, a skill passed down through the generations.  We were told that his grandfather had done the designs on the palace gates.

Panoramic view over Fes – the graves all face the same way towards Mecca.  Wafi told us when husbands die the women don’t come to the funeral/grave as they like to remember the happy times.

The Potteries - where they still do everything by hand.

Carrying out age-old techniques

Bread oven – All the bread in the Medina is made here, as it is not safe to have a lot of fire ovens in the Medina as it is so compact.

Bread oven

Tanneries Chouwara - The white vats are full of pigeon dung and locals collect it and can earn 200Dh per kilo (that’s a lot of dung to scoop up!) and the stench was immense and everyone who enters is given a sprig of mint to sniff to help disguise the smell. The hides are soaked in dye in the brown vats - turmeric (yellow), poppy (red) mint (green) and indigo (blue) for 28 days.  There has been little change in the processes here since the 16^th century.

Metal workers hammering away at iron and copper cauldron’s in Place Seffarine

A large grinder for sharpening the knives and tools

A goods-laden donkey trying to manoeuvre through one of the narrow passageways - an important mode of transport around the medina!

In the Weavers Souk

He showed us how the silk thread is removed from the cactus plant and used in the making of pure silk/part silk material. Mel kindly brought me to a silk scarf here but told me I can’t have it until 25 May – my birthday!

The tour cost 250DH for the 2 of us for 3 hours however, Wafi started the tour at 3pm and we finished just after 8pm (a 5 hour tour for the price of 3)– it was a fabulous tour and well worth the money.  There was so much to see and a clear divide between the rich and poor but it was inpossible to take those pictures to demonstrate how some of these poor people live to survive. Wafi told us that property is going for silly money here – the rich are buying up small areas for millions!

The taxi got us back to the campsite about 8.30pm we were exhausted but we really enjoyed Fes!

Sally x