After an easy 3 and a bit hour flight from Stansted we arrived into Fez, and headed into our accomodation in the heart of the Medina ( Old City). Our newly renovated Riad, Dar Finn was a delight and our charming host made fresh mint tea and biscuits for us and talked us through things to do in the city. The next morning after a local breakfast we ventured into the Medina fully expecting to get lost. I instantly loved it - Morocco is amazing in that in what feels like a modest flight from the UK you can be somewhere which totally feels like a different continent, and I've always had a thing for Africa. One of the first things we saw was a donkey pulling a load of copper pots. Little cheeky kids pushed past us hunting for sweets. We were possibly too early for people to be too bothered about us, as we seemed to just saunter through the souks getting no hassle whatsoever. I'd expected it to be a bit more overwhelming and have lots of sellers doing a hard sell, quite the opposite.
Our main objective for the morning was to see the tanneries - where the leather is processed and dyed by hand ( or rather foot). It didn't take long to find, and we watched the process from the terrace of a leather merchant. To help our delicate noses the clever owners are on hand with fresh mint leaves. The clever owners are also on hand to sell you all sorts of goods; and despite saying I only wanted to buy a mirror in Morocco I now seem to be the proud owner of a black goat skin leather ottoman. Let's hope I love it as much when I get it home and stuff it full of newspaper........
For the next few hours we busy ourselves with admiring some of the architecture ( Medersa el-Attarine is particularly impressive), trying to get into a mosque ( unsuccessfully....the biggest mosque and it seems focal point of the town is for Muslims only), and stumbling across lovely little squares ( the henna souk and the copper souk are both delightful). I get carried away with the shopping and come away with leather slippers, an antique tile and several other bits and bobs. Emily finds a hand made Berber cushion. The whole place is absolutely fascinating, it's like going back in time hundreds of years . The whole of the medina is car free, and donkeys and horses along with bikes are the main method of transporting goods. We both loved it. After a rest on our hotel rooftop we headed towards the south of the medina, having a camel burger at the fabulous cafe clock.
That evening the guard from our hotel walked us to a nearby restaurant El Hatim for a charming meal in a local family's riad - highly recommended - the ceiling of the riad was incredible. The restaurant also escorted us back to our Riad. I've read that the medina isn't entirely safe - it's certainly very dark and quiet late at night so I'd say not to walk on your own at dark maybe isn't a bad idea.
Day 2 and another gorgeous freshly made breakfast at Dar Finn we were off to do a cookery course at Cafe Clock. For 600 Dirham ( £35) the class also included buying from the local souk - so sounded fun. We got the warmest welcome at cafe clock, and had a truly memorable time with our chef Souad. We got to choose our menu - and we went for Taktouka ( green pepper salad), lentil soup, vegetable tagine with lamb and finally some macaroons. No one had booked so it was a private class for Em and I. I was handed a shopping basket and out into the souk we went. Souad seemed to know everyone in the souk so we spent an hour learning about the different foods, buying vegetables and bread for with our tagine and watching Souad gossip, giggle and catch up with all the stallholders. At the butchers we saw a cow's head being skinned ( unpleasant), the biggest queue was at the camel stall and we learned that the big tubs of lard with black bits in was actually preserved meat.
Back in the cafe clock kitchen we started on our meal. Parsley was chopped, garlic crushed, peppers grilled and sweated to allow their skins to be removed. Recipes in the following blog. Souad has a lovely style of cooking - far less exact - much more just throw a bit of this and a bit of that. The highlight was talking to her about her life, her family and life in Fez. A very special woman and we both were lucky to have spent the day with her. The fact that she cooks a mean tagine an added bonus.
Stuffed from cooking our afternoon was spent leaving the Medina walls and going into the gorgeous Jnan Sbil gardens. On our way home we bought a huge bag of strawberries for 10 Dirhams (70p). Fez was going to get a lot of recommendations from me, and we haven't even visited the local Hammam yet.
