THE VIEW FROM FEZ: Early Summer in Fez

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Early Summer in Fez

Summer sky over Fez

After a very wet and cool Spring, Summer has come early to to the Fez Medina. So today we took the camera and recorded the morning in Fez.

With the temperatures suddenly shooting from 18 or 19 degrees Celsius up to between 28 and 32 degrees, there had been a perceptible change in the Medina lifestyle. Suddenly the street cafes are more crowded, the shops are open a little longer in evening and families walking in the cooler night air until quite late at night.

The first of the watermelons have appeared in the vegetable souqs and although not as delicious as the ones later in the season, appear to be selling well. Ice cream is suddenly in demand across the Medina. And the tourists? Well, now they can't complain about not experiencing North African weather. However, the downside is that there is a rash of knees! Yes, the dreaded shorts are back, much to the amusement of the locals. To watch a bus-load of tourists disembarking is to be exposed to more flesh than any of us have seen all winter! Heady stuff.

This morning three of us from The View from Fez, headed first to the Merinide Tombs to take a look at the summer sky over Fez - it was the blue of Fez zellij - truly beautiful. Then it was on to the streets of the Medina to see how people were reacting to the sudden burst of heat.

If you take a taxi to the top of the Merinides tombs, the walk down the hill is very enjoyable, with spectacular views over the entire Medina. From the top to the entrance of the Medina at Bab Guissa (down to the left) is about ten minutes and takes you through goat tracks and the tombs.

Later we wandered through Bab Guissa and down to the Tal'aa Kbira where David decided it was time for a sit down in the cool of a cafe. To our surprise we were approached by two researchers from the university in Casablanca who were in Fez to interview foreign visitors about aspects cultural tourism. They couldn't believe their luck to have run into our travel reporter, David Margan, a seasoned television presenter. So for half an hour we sat while they filmed David talking about his first impressions of Fez.

David chills in a cafe

Back at The View from Fez another kind of meeting was taking place and we wondered just how many people it took to renovate a fountain. The answer seems to be as many as you can get.

Summer madness had struck and when we mentioned the fact that there were watermelons on sale in the souq the workers went into a song and dance routine and the cat ( wisely) took to the lemon tree.