Marrakesh Mama: Seductive Fez

“Fez is not a city that everyone can like. Many travelers have a negative reaction to its dark twisting alleys, teeming with people and animals. Anyone subject to claustrophobia may well find it only a nightmarish welter of tunnels, dead-end passageways, and windowless walls. To grasp the fascination of the place, one has to be the sort of person who enjoys losing himself in a crowd and being pushed along by it, not caring where to or for how long. He must be able to attain relaxation in the idea of being helpless in the midst of that crowd, he must know how to find pleasure in the outlandish, and see beauty where it is most unlikely to appear.” – Paul Bowles

Bab Boujloud

Despite mother nature’s best efforts to rain on our Fez parade, we came away in awe of the mystery and magic that this Moroccan city holds. Fez is a city with a heart that beats in the past. It is full of life, color, people, scents, and sights that maintain the magic of medieval times. Artisans occupy every quarter of the city – hammering metal, tanning and tooling leather, crafting pottery, and spinning wool. Down one alley, we could peek at the community bread oven. In the next we watched as enormous piles of olives were pressed into oil. A camel’s head hung from the butcher’s stall across from the selection of hanging sheep and cow parts that we have become accustomed to. We watched women sling batter onto bulbous-shaped cookers and then pull off thin layers of phyllo (or warqa) just minutes later for the never-ending supply of nutty Moroccan pastries that overflow from the shops. We feasted on deep-fried donuts in the rain, and sampled olives and almonds in the drizzle. We dodged donkeys and people as we navigated the steep cobblestone streets down into the Medina’s bowl. Unlike Marrakech’s flat medina, Fez requires lots of climbing and descending through the narrow alleys. The heart of the medina is dark and maze-like. Narrow alleys can be completely dark in the middle of the day. Some lead into mysterious unexplored sections of the medina. Others dead end in a pile of cats feasting on fish parts. All are crumbling. Despite ongoing restoration efforts, walls crumble and buildings fall. Scaffolding props up many of the buildings. We found ourselves casting a wary eye upward in narrow alleys – looking for signs of the next rock slide. Famous for its blue pottery and notorious for the stench of its tanneries, this city seduced us with its sensual overload. Two rainy days were not nearly enough, and I sense that a sunny visit to Fez will be in the cards for a warmer season.