Fès, Morocco First Eve & Day--The prophet Mohammed said those who would be beside him in paradise
...would be those with the best upbringing, those who show care for their fellows…nothing was said about practicing religion...quoted by our medina guide Hassan, a descendant of Moulay Idriss II, founder in 9th century of Fez, due to its rich water resources of melted snow from the mountains. Hassan was born in the Medina, and has been a guide all his life. Tonight he'll vote in the country's legislative elections. Undefatigable, he insisted we see as much as possible due to how far we'd traveled, and nearly killed us by extending the 3 hour tour into more than 4.
Backing up to arrival highlight:
Wonderful modern Fez Saiss Airport near sunset where Pat & I arrived 9/22/2026; going through customs was a breeze, many agents, short lines, but our agent was the slowest, echoing the air traffic delays we'd suffered on and off all day.
At the airport Mohammed met us and drove us in a roundabout way to the medina gate near our Riad. We drove through a modern suburb that almost looked like present day Houston, through an older poorer neighborhood where some crowds were gathered partying, then through a country road lined with greenery and trees with no street lights, finally stopping at a tiny parking area where a poor porter volunteered to take our bags up the narrow medina paths to the hotel. We had said the hotel's usual porter was expected to hear from us; Mohammed called the hotel to have the porter come, and stayed with us until they arrived.
Shown to our amazingly luxurious suite of 2 anterooms, bedroom and large bathroom, we were brought a simple meal of a pastilla (a fried stuffed wheat cake) with parsley as the vegetable (the chef had closed the kitchen before our arrival) and large plates of fruits (apples, peach, pear, lovely dark purple plums). We fell into lovely firm beds which Selma the manager had described as THE BEST BEDS, I thought I heard her call the brand "My Bed" but had never heard of it.
Breakfast was an omelette with tomatoes cooked into the eggs, toast, slices of simple cake and an English Muffin shaped corn cake (somewhere between polenta and cornbread), honey to dip the latter in, bonbel cheese wedges, jam, very little for a vegan. For my coffee, a wonderful rich brew, I asked for plant-based milk, which they said they had, and I poured some into the coffee. Tasting it seemed like it had evaporated cow's milk. When I questioned were they sure it was plant based, and Hassan brought out the milk... lactose-free milk in a box... oops. So I asked for a black coffee. I was glad to have had the eggs, due to the rigors of visiting the medina.
Another Hassan, a more mature gentleman, arrived at 10 am to lead us into the Medina. We'd ask that he conduct the tour in French. He quoted the Prophet with beautiful words that sounded like a French version of Shakespeare. One of our first stops was to admire one of the beautiful of the many minarets of the medina decorated in green tile.
Since Hassan was born in the medina, he knew it so well that he said he could take us places other than what the typical tourist gets to see. As we traveled through the winding narrow ways, Hassan would speak with friends of his, including one he sat with at our first little cafe, sitting in a bit of shade for refreshment. It felt hot! Especially after a spell of nice cool weather in Oregon.
Much of the medina is residential, with apartments within either dars or riads, built for poor or rich respectively. There are areas for food markets, where Hassan had us sample jujubes and he also demonstrated a strange thing from a dried flower head that people use for toothpick. The most exotic and disturbing site in that foods market was the camel butcher (Hassan says camel tastes like beef) was an actual camel head, hanging on the wall by the butchers, with green herbs spilling out of each side of its mouth.
Typical cobblestone merchant area in medina--wool dyed in many colors, pashminas...
We walked through one of the gates into the medina, where there was a wide street that used to be old houses which Hassan said were torn down by the French and the street covering the Fès river. We crossed the street to a money exchange, where we each got 3,724 moroccan dirhams for $400 US.
Later we crossed the river, no longer underground. Hassan had explained that the medina spreads out in a valley, on each side of the river, meaning a lot of our walking was up and down. In this picture the left side is the Almoravid area, populated when the Muslims were chased from Spain by Queen Isabella; on the left is the Kairouan district, populated by Tunisians in ancient times.
Metalworking -- many shops with trays, teapots, etc., and we saw an area that was a metalworker's co-op, where they shared expensive machines; and saw one fellow beating a large tray into shape manually.
Two amazing artisan spots were visited last. The first, a generational pharmacist for natural moroccan herbs, teas, spices and argan oil. He explained how argan oil comes from the argan tree. And to avoid buying any "argan oil" unless you can see it pressed yourself. He had a press and showed us pressing the oil we'd eventually buy. We smelled moroccan spices, teas and perfumes. I purchased a pouch of Desert Tea, heavy in mint, as well as cumin/lemon spice.
The other place was a women's co-op where we say two women demoing hand-tied rug making. And an amazing collection of berber and moroccan rugs were shown us by a salesman on the ground floor.
Both the pharmacist and the rug-makers required climbing up multiple non-ADA steps, and we were growing more and more tired and our legs aching. We had to insist Hassan take us back to the hotel before we saw the famous medersa and the tanneries. Tomorrow he is coming back with his cr to show us the other half of the medina while our bodies are recovering.
Riad's cold plunge pool, coming in useful after a hot day's tour of half of the
Hassan, the head waiter at the Riad who speaks French with us, saw us after dinner whed we'd toured the oldest part of the Riad, asked why we wanted to speak French and not English. We told him we love French and like to practice it. He said that of all the Americans he'd met at the Riad, we were the first to speak French.
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