Deep in a Moroccan Medina

Farida by Marriage Carriages

Our beautiful guide in the medieval section of Fez, Morocco, wore a long black coat and a black and white scarf. Farida is forty, with the unblemished skin of a twenty-year old. She grew up in the medina, got a BA in English literature, married for love, and has 3 sons. One of only a dozen women among the 400 licensed guides in Fez, Farida led us through the narrow lanes, alongside carts and donkeys laden with goods, past hundreds of workshops and stalls where craftsmen and merchants made and sold items their Berber and Arab ancestors sold centuries ago.

Fabric store in the Fez Medina

Farida shops in the medina. Why would she go outside, she asked, where everything is twice as expensive? Her wedding dresses and carriage were made in the medina. She carries her formed loaves to the neighborhood baker, who bakes each family’s bread.

On Sunday morning, her husband takes their older boys to the hammam, the community bathhouse, where in the steam room, they cover themselves with a dark, thick olive oil soap, scrub their entire bodies with a lufa mitt, and emerge 2 hours later squeaky clean. Farida takes their youngest child to the hammam another day, when it is reserved for women. No TV, no video games, no toys, and no distractions. Just two hours of parent/child togetherness every week. In the West, children stop bathing with their parents or each other at a certain age. In Morocco, thanks to community baths, all ages bathe together all their lives.

Produce along a street in Fez

Two days later, Farida came to fetch us at our dar, a house with a fountain in the courtyard, converted into a 4-room hotel at the end of a narrow alley. Safe from male eyes, she asked if we would like to see her hair. She removed her scarf and shook out a luxuriant, wavy black mane. She was movie star gorgeous. And, we realized, she was wearing makeup!

Muslim women may be like Moroccan architecture: nondescript when viewed from the outside, but inside is great beauty. The outer walls of a house don’t matter. Inside may be lush courtyards, gardens, fountains, orange trees, stained glass windows, arches, balconies, and intricately designed and decorated walls, pillars, and ceilings. 

Amy, Nancy, and Becky under rooftop tent

Our Dar Drissi in the heart of the medina boasted all of the above. On its roof, with a tall minaret rising above a nearby mosque visible -- and audible all day long-- we relaxed under a canopy with our dear traveling companions Amy and Terry.

Although we had been warned that people get very lost in the medina, our map of the tangled streets enabled us to navigate. We loved being in the center of the action and within walking distnce of  fabulous restaurants. We even spent an afternoon in a traditional hammam bathhouse where we got a good scrubbing and massage.
 

After four marvelous days in Fez, we boarded the Marrakesh Express for our next Moroccan adventure.