Fez

Fez is divided into three parts : one built by the French, the Medina built by the dynasty and the Jewish quarter. Fez is the religious, intellectual and handicraft capital of Morocco. There are 320 mosques in the Medina and half a million live and work inside it. We spent all morning wandering through the labyrinth of narrow alleyways.The souks were laden with everything imaginable - fruit, silver, silk, leather, carpets , jewellery , spices etc and we had to avoid laden donkeys, people pushing past and also the very persistent hagglers! If you hear the word 'balak' you need to move fast, because it means that a laden donkey or hand- drawn cart is trying to get past.I bought a lovely blue leather jacket and a small kirim carpet and was proud of my bargaining efforts! It was unbelievable in the carpet shop because the owner is married to Gwen Avery's niece, Elizabeth. Gwen was my senior English teacher at TGHS and went on to become the headmistress! What a small world? At first I didn't believe him when he said he had been to Timaru! There are three types of Moroccan carpets- the true blue patterned Fez carpets with 460,000 knots per square metre; the colourful tribal carpets which they make for themselves as heirlooms and the kilim or tapestry- like carpets, which are embroidered by hand. The Medina was fascinating but claustrophobic, hot, colourful, dirty, smelly and noisy. You had to watch where you put your feet but I did feel safe there.It was interesting that only the men work in the medina. I came back hot, dirty and tired to the lovely pool this afternoon.

We also visited the palace, which dates from the 14 th century, covers 200 acres and is surrounded by a huge wall. It has seven brass doors, one for each day of the week ,which are polished with lemon juice. It is not yet open to the public.