The Marché Centrale gets its marching orders.

Our Special Affairs reporter, Helen Ranger, goes shopping and comes back with an important story. Here is her report:

It’s really easy to direct visitors to interesting places in the Fes medina, whether to wander the souks or explore seriously historical monuments.But what about the new city? It is, after all, a fair-sized city where most Fassis live and is much bigger than the old place down the hill. Does it have anything at all to recommend it, other than McDonald’s and some impressive palm-lined boulevards currently being upgraded?


Well yes, The View from Fez thinks there’s one aspect of the Ville Nouvelle that’s an absolute gem – the Marché Centrale, or Central Market. Found bang in the middle of Avenue Mohamed V, this market is a delightful throwback to days of yore. No wheeling trolleys down supermarket aisles here, no wilting vegetables and wrinkled fruit to irk the customer. This is the real thing, with real people serving you products they’ve chosen to have on their stalls, people who are proud of their wares. The stallholders are characters who’ll help you all they can: there’s the basket seller keen to kiss your hand, the vegetable man who’s disappointed if you pass him by, the olive stall man in a big turban who lets customers taste one of his many varieties, and the flower seller who always tucks in an extra rose. You can buy quails, turkeys, chickens and rabbits. Legs of lamb and sides of beef. The vast array of fish glistens and gleams. And the fruit – oh, the fruit. Everything from persimmons to avocados, figs green and purple, strawberries, pears and quince. Friends with a guesthouse riad are there early every morning to choose fresh produce for their dinner guests.


Got the picture? Well, enjoy it while you can. It will soon be turned into an office block with underground parking, oh, with a bit of space for a market maybe, but a streamlined, cleaner one. More modern, that’s what we want. None of this characterful stuff. Already the elderly herb seller is giving up. How many more of these wonderful merchants will be sidelined?


Funny, isn’t it, that in many ‘first world’ countries, organic food market stalls are springing up all over the High Street, whereas in developing countries such as Morocco, the markets are being cleaned up and the fresh produce banished to wilt on supermarket shelves?

All photographs: Helen Ranger.

Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news