Positive Reception to Jardin des Biehn Exhibition Opening

Yesterday Jardin des Biehn held the opening a new exhibition of twelve Azrou Boucharwads created by young French artists and made by a group of women artisans in Azrou

The exhibition included the initial drawings, the suggested swatch colours and the final creation.

Ideal for use as wall hangings, the exhibits were mainly in soft, muted tones and drew positive comments from the opening evening crowd. The only criticism was a general feeling that the wall hangings would have been even more stunning if they had been larger.

The small gallery was crowded with both locals and visitors to Fez. They were treated to some fine finger-food and interesting fruit cocktails.

The four artists from Paris were extremely happy with the reception to their work and spent time chatting with guests and posing for photographs.

The French designers were happy with the reaction to their works

The exhibition is open at Jardin des Biehn until October the 8th.  It is well worth a visit.

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A Day Trip from Fez - Into the Mountains and the Azrou Market Day

The city of Fez is perfectly located for use as a base to explore the countryside and towns in the region. Yesterday The View from Fez tagged along with two visiting Australians as they travelled to the "Tuesday Market" in the Middle Atlas town of Azrou

The Amazigh (Berber) name, Azrou, means "great rock" owing to a strange volcanic outcrop just outside the western edge of the town. As the town is at 1250 metres, it can be chill so go prepared. While the day was warm and clear, it was easy to imagine the cold the region must experience in winter when it is buried beneath deep snowdrifts. The highway has several snow barriers that are used to stop motorists when the road is impassible.

Just 89 kilometres from Fez, Azrou is in the heart of the Middle Atlas, close to the ski fields and the university and holiday town of Ifrane.

Azrou town centre

The road to Azrou has spectacular views

The country markets take place on the same day every week and each market is named for the day on which it occurs. It is said that on any given day there are over 800 markets taking place throughout Morocco.

Singer/songwriter Martin Pearson and Alex Prior teamed up with Rachida El Joukh to explore the markets and it was only minutes before Alex was discovering that (with a bit of bargaining) the caftans and djellaba's were inexpensive enough for her to buy several,

Rachida and Alex hunt down bargains

"This purple is fine... but pink? No"

"But this orange is stunning"

Meanwhile, in the Oak and Cedar forests there was a variety of wildlife...

Martin Pearson taking a stroll in the forest

Martin Pearson will be giving his only concert in Morocco at Riad Zany on Thursday night  (see details here)

Details:

If you have the money, then hiring a car and driver for the day is a good option and will cost around 850 dirhams for the day. A grand-taxi will cost 30 dirham a seat. There are also six buses (around 20 dirham) from Fez to Azrou every day. If you are traveliing by car, go via Imouzzer and take a coffee break in to the resort and university town of Ifrane. Most of the tour parties stop at the first hotel (Les Chamoix), but we would suggest going a little further into the town and trying one of the more reasonably priced cafes. Ifrane is a little like a European alpine village and the architecture will remind you an Austrian mountain village.

For more information, contact Plan-it-Fez

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From Scotland to the Sahara ~ By Bicycle

When Paul Armstrong found himself unable to fly, he decided to cycle instead – all the way from Scotland to the Sahara. Vanessa Bonnin reports

Paul Armstrong in the Ruined Garden Café  in Fez - Photo Vanessa Bonnin

Armstrong, 27, from Alloway in Scotland, is a pilot with the Royal Navy who is equally passionate about cycling as he is flying. In January his entire fleet was grounded after two aircraft crashes and instead of taking off to Thailand with the rest of his squadron he decided to cycle to Morocco.

“I’ve ridden since I was a little kid, bikes are my thing,” Armstrong (no relation to Lance) said. “In the past I’ve done short tours like London to Amsterdam in two days, to the Alps and back, classic Tour de France climbs, that sort of thing, but this time I wanted to do a big tour. I had visited the north of Morocco 15 years ago with my parents but I wanted to see the real Morocco and go to the Sahara.”

But before he could search for “the real Morocco” he had to cycle all the way through Scotland, England, Belgium, France and Spain. On his Spin road bike, with a handmade titanium frame, he took in a few mountain ranges on the way including the Pyrenees, the Sierra Nevada and the Sierra de Grazalema.

“I left Scotland in mid-January, and for the first few weeks I was miserable because of the cold,” he said. “I could only take minimal kit on the bike and my SLR camera was my only luxury. Then from Malaga all the way to Larache there were horrendous headwinds, I was only doing an average of nine miles an hour, compared to my normal rate of 18 miles an hour. There was really heavy rain and I was having a miserable time!I also stacked it in Tangier only two miles from the ferry because they seemed to be digging up every road in Tangier at the time and the roads were covered in mud slicks.”

Despite thinking of his squadron in sunny Thailand, Armstrong persevered taking a route down through Morocco that went from Tangier to Larache (where he spent his 27th birthday), Rabat, Casablanca, Safi, Essaouria, Agadir, Tiznit and finally Tan Tan.

“Tan Tan was my most southerly destination but it was about the whole journey for me, not just the destination of the desert, although I really did want to see the sand dunes,” he said. “I baked even though I was using 50+ sunscreen! But it was phenomenal to see. What I was I most happy about was I’d been cycling into a head wind since Tangier – for over 1000kms – and it was pretty soul destroying. So turning around and having a tail wind was fantastic!”

Despite reaching the desert, his journey was far from over and the highlights of his adventure were yet to come.

“After Tan Tan I cycled back to Tiznit and then went inland over the Anti-Atlas to Tafraout,” he said. “These were Alpine-style climbs, really arduous averaging 8-9% inclines over 20 miles and the sun was blisteringly hot, climbing all the way to 2500m. But it was worth it, Tafraout and the whole area was spectacular, indescribable really.”

Armstrong then went from Taroudant to Marrakech, via the Tizi N’Test pass, a route that has been described as the most spectacular in Morocco, reaching a high point of 2092m above sea level.

“I was quite apprehensive about climbing the Tizi N’Test Pass which wasn’t helped by stopping and meeting a Moroccan cyclist working as a waiter at the bottom who said ‘there’s no way you’ll make it in one day’”, he said. "Undeterred however I set off and got to a sign at the start of the climb that said Tizi N’Test 36kms. There was a 7-8% gradient for the entire climb but I did it in 3.5 hours with 6 litres of water and 1.5 litres of Coca-Cola!

"That was my achievement moment, getting to the top of the Tizi N’Test Pass. There’s phenomenal scenery up there and then I set off on the descent into the sunset which was magic.”

After two days well-earned rest in Marrakech, Armstrong continued his Morocco tour through Beni Mellal, Khenifra, Azrou, Meknes and finally Fes, where we meet him – arriving for brunch at the Ruined Garden Café with a helpful local called Youssef.

“My whole experience of Morocco has been that the people are so friendly - Youssef is a good example of that friendliness,” he said. "I’ve almost come to expect it here. Bumping into people and getting chatting. The kids especially, all the kids run after you down the road, waving and holding out their hands to shake. It’s great, puts a smile on your face. With the bike you get to experience the country and the people in a way you wouldn’t in a car or campervan or on a motorbike.”

So what was the highlight of experiencing Morocco by bike?

“The best moment was when I was riding from Azrou to Meknes, I was riding through a 2000m pass in hailstones and strong winds,” he said “I had this car behind me, beeping and beeping, then they pulled alongside me and handed over some chocolate bars! It put a big smile on my face – I was soaked to the skin but that gesture really kept me going.”

And what does this intrepid explorer think of our beloved city, Fes?

“I love Fes, it’s a warren, you walk down side streets and discover new things, it’s one big adventure. I love the sense of discovery. And the tanneries are something else – they didn’t smell as bad as I thought they would!” he said.

Despite the hardships on this journey – his longest by bike so far – Armstrong is determined to try more cycling adventures in the future.

“Oh definitely, to ride in a different culture is amazing and to get to visit the country as well is a fantastic combination.”

Armstrong travelled on from Fes to Chefchaouen, Al Hoceima, Tangier and Malaga before flying home with a slightly heavier load that included the essential Fes purchases – a Moroccan, rug and a leather jacket!


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A Visit to Azrou - the Tuesday Souq

The View from Fez reader, Javier Samaniego, recently visited the Tuesday Souq at Azrou and kindly sent this photographic record of his visit. Azrou is a favourite day-trip destination for visitors to Fez.

For more on the Tuesday Souq, see our earlier story here. Azrou Souq

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The Tuesday Souq in Azrou

For those with a reasonable amount of time in Fez, day trips are a great way to take a break from the Medina and get to see more of the surrounding countryside. The easiest destinations include, Meknes, Volubilis, Moulay Idriss, Sefrou, Ifrane and Azrou.

Every week in Morocco there are more than 800 country souqs held. Usually the name of the souq is the name of the day on which it is held. So, on a Tuesday, it is a good plan to head to the Tuesday souq at Azrou.

Spectacular Middle Atlas scenery -photo Sandy McCutcheon 

If you have the money, then hiring a car and driver for the day is a good option and will cost between 600 and 800 dirhams for the day).  A grand-taxi will cost 28 dirham a seat. There are also six buses (18 dirham)  from Fez to Azrou every day. If you are traveliing by car, go via Imouzzer  and take a coffee break in to the resort and university town of Ifrane. Most of the tour parties stop at the first hotel (Les Chamoix), but we would suggest going a little further into the town and trying one of the more reasonably priced cafes. Ifrane is a little like a European alpine village and the architecture will remind you an Austrian mountain village.

After Ifrane you travel through cedar and oak forest to Azrou. If you stop in the forest, it might be a good thing to heed the warnings about the Macaques (Barbary apes)and read our story : Morocco - making the animals anxious?

The Amazigh (Berber) name, Azrou, means "great rock" owing to a strange volcanic outcrop just outside the western edge of the town. As the town is at 1250 metres, it can be chill so go prepared.

Azrou carpet souq - photo Suzanna Clarke 
The Tuesday Souq is hard to miss, as from early morning the people stream into the open area 1.5 kilometres outside the town to the northeast. Just inside the souq gates are some of the cheapest carpets (compared to Fez) although the quality is variable. Bargain hard and you should be able to get something worthwhile. Look out for the red carpets with geometric motifs as these are the speciality of the Beni M'Gid Berbers who gave up the nomadic lifestyle and founded the town.

Azrou Mosque - photo Suzanna Clarke 
In the centre of the town is a strip of restaurants serving basic Moroccan dishes, but be prepared to pay tourist prices. A street meal that would usually cost six of us around 100 dirhams cost double that as we were charged for the usually complimentary olives and salad. Still, the chicken was delicious. For something a  little different, try trout or the rabbit tajine at the Hotel des Cedres in Place Mohammed V. Also on Mohammed V you will find ATMs and Cyber Abridnet where you can check your email for 6 dirham for 30 minutes..

Azrou town centre - Photo Suzanna Clarke 
This week, photographer, Gérard Chemit, visited Azrou and kindly sent us the following photographs of the Tuesday Souq.

Morocco - making the animals anxious?

If you are taking a day trip out of Fez, or coming back from a day in the cool up in Ifran, it might be a good thing to heed the warnings about the Macaques (Barbary apes). Some years ago, coming through Tizi Tioumliline and on the track beside the Oued Sebbab that leads you back to Azrou I stopped for a quiet Macaque chat and while I was thus engaged another launched itself onto my back. This not an experience to be recommended.

But now, according to the journal Biological Conservation, a study reveals that Macaques at a site regularly visited by tourists showed signs of anxiety when people got too close, fed them or tried to attract their attention for a photograph.

The scientists monitored the monkeys' behaviour and also tested the animals' droppings for stress hormones.

"There's been a lot of interest, recently, in tourism and how it affects wild animal populations," explained Dr Stuart Semple, a scientist who specialises in the study of primates at the University of Roehampton in London, UK. "But while there are studies that show tourism does affect animal behaviour, we've tried to look at it much more directly, and to actually measure their levels of anxiety."

Macaque taking a time-check

Laetitia Marechal, also from Roehampton, led the study.

She and her colleagues studied 50 days of tourist-monkey interactions at Ifrane National Park in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

A population of macaques here has become habituated to the regular visits of tourists for at least five years.

"The more tourists there were, the more anxious the macaques would become," said Dr Semple.

"Just like humans, macaques scratch themselves when they're nervous or anxious, so we use this [scratching behaviour] as a measure of their level of anxiety."

The researchers divided the interactions into three categories: feeding; neutral, which included taking photographs of the monkeys; and aggression, including the less common incidences of tourists throwing things at the macaques or physically striking them.

My opinion? Nah, I'm sitting on the fence...

"All three types of interactions seemed to make the monkeys anxious," said Dr Semple.

For the record,i t is thought there are fewer than 6,000 Barbary Macaques left in the wild. They are found mainly in mountainous regions of Algeria and Morocco.

While I agree with the scientists, I have to say that having a Macaque on my back, holding on to my ears and riding me like a small jockey on a pony, also made me anxious.

Of Gods & Men filmed at Toumliline, Morocco

The movie, Of Gods and Men, that has won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes and is now the French Oscar entry, was filmed last year at Toumliline near Azrou in the Middle Atlas mountains.

Xavier Beauvois' movie tells the true story of nine Cistercian monks working at a monastery in Tibhirine in the Atlas mountains of northern Algeria. In 1996, seven of them were abducted by the GIA (Armed Islamic Group) and held as hostages. The captors claimed to have executed them, but more recently it has been suggested that they were accidentally killed by the Algerian army during a botched rescue attempt.

The movie begins by establishing the routine of the monks as they go about their prayer, work and service in the austere monastery. The next to oldest, Luc (Michael Lonsdale), is a kindly, experienced doctor, who holds daily clinics for the villagers with the assistance of the eldest brother, the ancient Amédée. Others work in the garden, assist a labourer to build a wall, help an old lady to apply for a passport to visit her son in France, and bottle honey from their open hives to sell in the nearby market as "Miel de l'Atlas". Their elected leader, Brother Christian (Lambert Wilson), aged around 50, is the intellectual of the group, seen at his desk, writing, surrounded by books.

Scene from Of Gods and Men

They mix easily with the Arab population, and we see them attend a Christian service conducted in Maghrebi. This quiet, undemonstrative existence of contemplation and useful activity of the community is disrupted by an escalating series of events that put the monks' lives in danger and forces them to examine the nature of their vocations, turning the film into a kind of thriller.

From then on, until their inevitable abduction, the monks' resolve is steadily strengthened as they stand trapped between an oppressive Algerian government and increasingly threatening insurgents. As an army helicopter hovers menacingly above their chapel, they chant prayers and cling to each other for solidarity. When, towards the end, they're joined by a ninth brother who's been absent in France, they celebrate communion, followed by what feels like a re-enactment of the last supper as they drink wine together and listen to a cassette of Swan Lake, laughing and smiling together for the last time.

"It is a very current film," comments film producer Etienne Comar. "It's interesting to look at this atrocity as it happened before 9/11 - all the signs of what was to come were there.

"When I re-read again the last testimony of the monks' leader, Brother Christian, he was very aware of the co-habitation of Muslim and Christian neighbours. He seemed to have a sense that it was going to become a talking point.

"Now it is an important issue wherever in the world you live - the USA, France, the UK, the Middle East. I want this film to ask, 'what is the next step?' How can we live in peace with each other? What dialogue should we have?"

Of Gods and Men was filmed last year at Toumliline in the mountains above Azrou, close to Fez. Toumliline was the location of a similar monastery of Benedictine monks. This particular group of monks was well received by locals and visited by King Hassan II and his family. They stayed in Morocco for around 11 years, before leaving in the 1960s.

Boujemaa Boudaouad, whose family lives in the monastery now and has taken care of it since the Benedictines left, is a registered guide for Morocco with a particular love of the Middle Atlas. Currently in London, Boujemaa reports that he's seen the movie and found it very sad, though he enjoyed it.

One other person who's seen the film is one of the surviving monks from the Algerian monastery. Brother Jean-Pierre, now 87 and living in Midelt, was sent a DVD of the film. "It brought me peace", he said.

Of Gods and Men is being shown at the Marrakech Film Festival this week.

A day trip from Fez

Spectacular Middle Atlas scenery
For those with a reasonable amount of time in Fez, day trips are a great way to take a break from the Medina. The usual destinations are Meknes and Volubilis. However today we would like to suggest another town in the Middle Atlas with a country souq. Every week in Morocco there are more than 800 country souqs held. Usually the name of the souq is the name of the day on which it is held. So being Tuesday, we headed to the Tuesday souq at Azrou.

Travelling by grand taxi ( about 500 - 600 dirhams for the day) six of us went via Imouzzer to the resort and university town of Ifrane where we paused for coffee. Most of the tour parties stop at the first hotel (Les Chamoix), but we would suggest going a little further into the town and trying one of the more reasonably priced cafes. Ifrane is a little like a European alpine village and the architecture will remind you of a Switzerland.

Friendly local outside Ifrane (see footnote)

On past Ifrane you travel through cedar and oak forest ( we stopped to take a look at the wild life in the cedar forests)) to Azrou. The name is Berber for "rock" owing to a strange volcanic outcrop just outside the town. At 1250 metres it can be chill so go prepared.

Azrou carpet souq
The Tuesday Souq is hard to miss, as from early morning the people stream into the open area outside the town in their hundreds. Just inside the gates are some of the cheapest carpets ( compared to Fez) although the quality is variable. Bargain hard and you should be able to get something worthwhile. Look out for the red carpets with geometric motifs as these are the speciality of the Beni M'Gid Berbers who gave up the nomadic lifestyle and founded the town.

Azrou Mosque
In the centre of the town is a strip of restaurants serving basic Moroccan dishes, but be prepared to pay tourist prices. A street meal that would usually cost six of us around 100 dirhams cost double that as we were charged for the usually complimentary olives and salad. Still, the chicken was delicious.

Azrou town centre
The Berber village of Ain Leuh, 30 km South of Azrou, is the venue for a Middle Atlas arts festival in July. Country markets are held here on Mondays and Thursdays.

Fine Berber carpet
Pics - Suzanna Clarke

Footnote: No monkey was harmed in creating this post!

In light of the fact that JULIA ROBERTS courted controversy this week when she posed for photographs with chained monkeys in Morocco we would like to say that the monkey in our photograph was an unchained pregnant female beside the road in the Middle Atlas. She agreed to pose after falling in love with our friend Mark's wristwatch.

The problem started for the Oscar winner when she took time out of filming CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR to enjoy the sights of Marrakech. Roberts succumbed to the tourist attraction of cuddling up with performing Barbary monkeys in the city's famed Djemaa El Fna.

Animal rights groups and respected guides such as Lonely Planet encourage tourists to refrain from paying to pose with the macaques, who are kept in chains in the bustling city all day and are removed from their natural habitat in the nearby Atlas Mountains.