Jane Slade and her husband spent three days exploring the fascinating Medina in Fez in Morocco, staying at the luxurious Palais Amani hotel
A huge steaming pot of chickpea soup bubbles away on precarious looking stove next to a barber cutting a boy’s hair. Beside him is a camel’s head hanging above a display of fresh meat.
Vast and sprawling with some alleys so narrow that wooden beams are wedged between them to keep the walls from toppling in, it’s amazing that the Medina in Fez exists at all.
By 11am the aromas of chickpea and sandalwood have penetrated the cool air and combined with the waft of freshly sawn wood emanating from the workshops around carpenter’s square, from where a cacophony of sound begins to build.
Five times a day the rhythmic hammering and sawing mingles with the Imams’ calls to prayer from Fez’s 187 mosques, ringing around the passageways which act as echo chambers.
My guide Ahmed, dressed in a hooded djellaba, looks as through he has walked straight out of a Harry Potter movie as he leads me down a kind of Diagon Alley, where displays of scarves are stacked high next to huge jars of olives and a jumble of shiny silver tea pots.
He stops to talk to his chum Idris who is furiously propelling a concrete wheel with one leg at his knife-sharpening kiosk. Idris, 74, has been honing blades for customers from the same tiny stall for the past 30 years.
He is an essential cog in the wheel of life in the medina where everything is recycled – including the donkey droppings.
We stayed at one of a very few hotels in the Medina; the Palais Amani, a 300-year-old restored Riyadh just inside the Medina walls. The Palais Amani www.palaisamani.com is a quiet oasis, a mere doorway from the crazy chaos beyond.
A short chicane bring you to a traditional open air courtyard with a little fountain in the middle surrounded by citrus trees. It took three years to restore the four-storey Palais with balconies overlooking the interior and a roof terrace with views over the medieval city.
The rooms and suites are all individually decorated in traditional mosaic and stucco (a mixture of powdered marble mixed with egg whites) with stained glass windows. We stayed in a suite on the ground floor and woke to sparrows singing and splashing in the fountain.
The staff are charming and if you have time the head chef will take you shopping and show you how to cook a local dish.
Little has changed in the Medina, known as Fez El-Bali, since biblical times.
Covering some 250 acres it is a city within a city and home to some 300,000 people. There are locals who have never been outside it and some who live nearby who have never been in it. They don’t know what they’re missing.
While Ahmed chats with Idris I watch a wall appear on the move; encrusted with snails which have escaped from a huge pannier on the floor.
“I am sad my children don’t know the Medina like I do,” laments Ahmed who comes from four generations of Medinites, but moved out to a new modern apartment in Fez ‘new town’ before his children were born.
“Everyone knows everyone here; there’s a real sense of community. And it’s the safest place on earth.”
My husband and I have chosen to spend a long weekend in this fascinating place during early spring. There aren’t too many tourists, in fact we don’t hear a single English voice which we rather like. What’s more the stall sellers no longer leap out at you manifesting their aggressive sales techniques, like they used to.
The Medina in Fez is the largest car free area in the world. People still transport their goods on donkeys, mules and hand-propelled carts so you have to be on your mettle (particularly with the ones travelling at speed with live produce on board).
The one Arab term you learn quickly is ‘barak’ – get out of my way!
The lofty walls, colour coded to help you find your way, are punctuated with big heavy oak doors. They open into airy courtyards of traditional blue and white mosaic columns, leading to an ornate shrine, ancient university or private home.
The secret worlds that exist within the Medina are endless. Ahmed led us through one door into a vast antiques shop selling exquisite jewellery, china, carpets and art.
Here a silver and coral bracelet costs £350 (compared to less than £3 from a stall a few feet away outside) and a silver and silk carpet, £8,000.
Shoppers come from all over the world to sift through the exotic paintings and mirrors hanging on the mosaic walls. The antique silver daggers are particular popular with the Rockefeller family whose members organise shipments to America.
However, the medina is most famous for its tanneries which are particularly pungent during summer. A viewing balcony looks out onto a massive arena of conical concrete tubs. Each one filled with a vegetable dye – poppy for red, henna for orange, cedar for brown, wild mint for green, indigo for blue and skin of pomegranates for yellow.
“You have Tower Bridge we have the tanneries,” declares Ahmed as we stared out at the vista of vats watching the young men dunking the animal skins.
Some vats contain lime which makes it easier to get the animal hair off, while others are filled with pigeon droppings which softens the leather.
As you might expect there is a warren of shops on various levels selling bags, belts, wallets, jackets, coats, hats you name it, at all prices. The most expensive stuff is on the top floor where I headed; where all the designer clothing is made.
I bought a beautiful soft brown suede jacket for £180 from the ‘Prada’ rack, negotiated down from £250; but would retail for about £1,500.
Just as you start to feel claustrophobic; some of the alleys are really that narrow, a lovely courtyard opens up. In Brass founder’s square a discordant clanging, crashing and banging of hammers leads you to picturesque displays of bright copper pans, pots and containers which hang at all heights and glisten in the bright sunshine.
Each square and alley seems to have a theme. Nejjarine Square with its stunning mosaic fountain, has a museum of wood dating from the 17th century and nearby souk of glitzy wedding chairs!
There’s dyers alley where locals bring their clothes for a colour change, and techno street where you can exchange your old mobile phone, pick up a second hand radio or an old charger and cable.
There are some excellent restaurants in the Medina if you know where to look – Dar Roumana serves near Michelin-star standard cuisine and is a must for dinner as you dine under a candlelit mosaic and stucco cathedral ceiling www.darroumana.com while Patio Bleu, a similarly ornate restaurant served less sophisticated but delicious local tagines and couscous dishes and is ideal for lunch.
The Medina is not for the squeamish or those concerned with health and safety issues; but for a step into another world and some great bargains you can’t beat it.
For more information visit www.palaisamani.com
12 Derb el Miter, Oued Zhoune, Fez Medina, 30000, Morocco
Rooms from around £150 based on two sharing including three course Moroccan breakfast
Fez airport is located 20-30 minutes drive from the medina and Palais Amani can organise transfers.
Ryanair operates flights to Fez from London Stansted. For information visit www.ryanair.com
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