Paris Update #3 - Feb Trip to Morocco

 March 14, 2024

Hi all - Happy Pi Day!!!!! from a rainy and wet Paris, but spring is coming 🌇....i have to say, i had no idea how wet the wether was here in the winter....everyone has been saying to me that this is a very wet winter....more so than usual....ugh...but i did escape the weather for a week in february and hit my 91st country - Morocco.....this update will focus on that trip, because me and my friend laurie visited many different parts of Morocco....and for the most part, the weather was lovely....

a quick update about paris though....lots of folks have swung by or are coming through....which is so much fun for me to see everyone...again, it is amazing to live in a place so many folks want to visit....and because of this, the added bonus for me is a meal and drinks with people as they see the sites and have a trip of a lifetime....the spring is starting here and the rain is lessening....so i am excited for what this season will be like...since my last update i have been traveling a bit.....i was in london for a middle school conference, and had a bunch of reunions for that visit....and because it was such an easy trip i have included some more european travel this spring....i am off to helsinki, amsterdam, estonia, latvia and lithuanian, normandy, two visits to friends who live in france and another trip to london.....i am living my best life ⭐ it is sooooooo great being back in europe, where travel is so easy....love the trains!!!! so let me know if you are headed this way and me and eiffel tower will say hi😎

Laurie and i visited Morocco and saw my friends peter and jenny in casablanca....no, we did not make it to the famous bar....didn't really have the time....we also connected with friends of mine in Tangier and Fes....so it was a cool trip of old friends and new friends, as well as making new friends along the way....we were in casablanca, tangier, chefchaouen (the blue coity), asilah, and fes.....it was filled with tasty food, train rides, haggling for taxis, medinas, call to prayer, a hammam, cool sites and tons of cats....the cats were everywhere, but they were the well kept street cats....fed by many....so on with the pictures from morocco.....sorry that they are backwards from the way we traveled, but this way you will end back in paris with a shot from my bus stop in the morning😎

The food in morocco was quite tasty and we got into the fun habit of having lots of appetizers, that way we could try more different flavors....this particular rooftop restaurant in fes had an amazing cauliflower dish and really tasty zucchini croquettes...plus the view of the sunset was pretty spectacular....you'll see it below😉

this shot is some graffiti from casablanca....we jumped the tram to a cooperative to pick up some souvenirs and food things and i snapped this just before we got on....the tram was easy and really clean....we had our tickets checked by ticket monitors and it was quite impressive...all above ground....you can tell morocco is getting ready to host world cup in 2030...we saw it everywhere....

this is a shot of our cooking crew in fes....we went shopping for ingredients, where some vendors had us decide who served the best mint tea....it was hilarious and then we made a smoked eggplant dish, a soup, some veggie couscous and a dessert....a very tasty, rainy afternoon....with some very cool women🍆

we had a five hour tour of the medina in fes...during which our guide told us there are over 9000 alleyways and 40000 dead ends....this medina is from the 1200's and is still very much a working medina....when they are yelling for you to get out of the way, you better move....the shot above is of the original water clock of the medina...from the 14th century...metal balls were released from the windows into brass bowls, which would hit the bowls and make a sound to mark the hour....the balls and bowls are no longer there and the clock does not work....but how amazing that they could tell time this way....love the history and science🕐💡⏳

the different bread products we had in morocco were quite tasty....i was not a huge fan of their croissants, compared to paris, but the flat breads and phyllo dough things were incredible....

ramadan was less than a month away when we were visiting, so people were starting to stock up on all of the treats they have before it starts and when it ends, as well as during the meals they eat before sunrise and after sunset....these were some of the treats that we saw everywhere....yes, we had some as well...yum!!!!

this is that sunset i mentioned earlier....it looked like the sky was on fire....the tall building in the middle is one of the 300 mosques found in fes....fes is considered to be the spiritual capital of morocco....

 

fes was and still is a huge stop on the trading routes through morocco...it is no longer done by caravan for the most part, but camels are still found in morocco, especially as you get closer and closer to the sahara desert....camel meat is also a delicacy in morocco...this camel head was for sale the morning we went shopping for our ingredients for our cooking class....anyone????

i loved these things....they looked like something a tailor would be using, but it is actually the way they make phyllo dough....so the white stuff on the top of the mannequin head like thing, is actually very thinly rolled phyllo dough, that they kind of throw around like a hand tossed pizza....it was just cool to watch..

this shot is of the choaura tannery in the middle of the fes medina....it is the oldest and the largest of the three tanneries found in this medina...it was incredible to watch...men work in the tannery in the morning hours, because it is such hard work, and they stop around noon due to exhaustion and many months of the year it being too hot....this tannery is over 1000 years old....wow!

i loved all of the little stalls as you walked around the medina...and i have to say there did not seem to be that big of a hassle here, compared to the big medinas in cairo and istanbul....many people said nothing to the tourists wandering around....this particular shop caught my eye....it is ALL cassette tapes...how crazy is that....i just wondered how many of these they are still selling....i don't own anything that would play cassettes anymore😜

it was also cool to see how they got products in and out of the many alleyways in the medina, no cars are allowed...although in some places they can have scooters....we kept seeing these donkeys carrying the gas tanks to the cooking stalls all around the medina....donkeys....carrying compressed gas....just wild...🫏

This is a shot from the courtyard of one of the madrasas in fes....it is called the al-attarine madrasa....it was the school of the perfumers....and was built in 1323...and is now a tourist destination to see the arabic calligraphy, mosaic tile work and pillars made of marble....it is still used during religious events, but is no longer used as a school....it was stunning....

this is the blue gate of fes...known as Bab Bou Jeloud...this is considered to be the entrance to the old city...and we stayed a few streets away....it was re-built like this by french colonialists in 1913....most people in fes spoke arabic and french...although now moroccans are learning english in schools...so lots of younger folks spoke english....we also heard some spanish up north by spain, and some berber...which is the language spoken by the berber tribes of the desert.....

we stayed in riads in both tangier and in fes....riads are traditional moroccan houses or palaces...which orginally had an indoor courtyrd and a garden...i am so glad we stayed in these, as they showed off the true flavor of morocco architecture...this is the entrance-way to the breakfast area in the fes riad....

this shot was taken the first night we were in fes...it was a beautiful sunset and we watched the boy on the roof near us make a school project from cardboard, plus we were right next door to a mosque for the call to prayer....i really enjoyed this part of morocco....

EVERYWHERE we went in morocco there were street cats...i love this shot of laurie and the one sitting above her like a lion in a tree...many of them were well fed and did not look like street cats...the moroccans seem to feed them and keep them around....

another town we visited was asilah...this is sleepy little beach town on the atlantic ocean....it was filled with murals and had lots of little alleyways we could wander through in the kasbah (walled part of the town)...the buildings were mostly painted white....

i loved this mosaic of glass pieces around this door of asilah....loved many of the doors located in morocco as well....the shapes and the colors were amazing....

this was one of my favorite doorways in chefchaouen, also known as the blue city...this place was mind-blowing....blue was painted everywhere...as you can really see in the image below....but this particular doorway was lovely.....

why is chefchaouen known as the blue city??? well, there seem to be two main reasons....the first is supposedly because jewish refugees, who escaped to here during the time of hitler in 1930, painted the city blue to represent the sky and heaven....the second reason is much more practical...blue deters mosquitos and flies because they think that the blue paint is really water and that they will drown....both interesting reasons that have created a simply amazing place to visit...

i loved this shot as well...an older woman, not a nun, coming up the walk in her hijab....she was walking slow, but she was making it....her in all white, along with the blue walls...just a striking shot....when you are in the medinas or kasbahs of morocco, it really feels like you are going back in time....

this city is car free, so only for pedestrians....they have painted the walls and doors a multitude of times...and the blues don't even have to match....such a cool place...

and the day we were in fes it was amazing weather....so here i am in an instagram location...it is so funny to me that so many cities around the world have now set up spots for folks to get the instagram shot they want to show all of their friends and family....i just had to do it 😉

this is our breakfast at the riad in tangier...it food was simply tasty and plentiful throughout the whole trip....and the mint tea...we had it constantly...moroccans certainly known how to be amazing hosts....

we stayed in the kasbah at the top of tangier....soooooooooo hilly....but the street art in this section of town was great....i loved these dudes...and they were all over the place....of course with the artist's instagram handle....

this was one of the many alleyways in the kasbah...more blue, but nothing like chefchaouen...but i loved this area with the plants and artwork on the walls....

another shot of laurie and i, looking over the port of tangier...in the far distance you can see the outline of spain...that's how close we were...we did not take the ferry over, but it seemed like an easy/fast thing to do....

this is the inner courtyard of the riad in tangier...it used to be a fountain...but now it holds fresh flowers and is a way to show what it used to be...this riad was lovely and they gave us mint tea and sweets whenever we wanted....so nice....

this is the hassan II mosque in casablanca from the balcony of my friends jenny & peter's place....it is huge...it is the second largest functioning mosque in africa and is the 14th largest in the world....it is also one of the few mosques open to non-muslims...unfortunately we did not get a chance to visit while we were there...it was great to see jenny and peter while in casablanca...play it again.....

my last shot in this round of pictures is from my morning bus stop....this was taken over a week ago...it is sooooo nice to have light in the mornings again and later into the evening....i love it when it is clear skies...because this view never gets old...whether morning, with sun glinting off of it or evening when it is all lit up and sparkles on the hour....the eiffel tower has won my heart 🥖

so these are the pictures and my update from my 91st country visit....morocco...it was a wonderful week, traveling with laurie, catching up with friends, making new friends, and experiencing a new land...i even got to use my french and spanish while there....it was a fabulous trip with fun, new experiences and really reminded me how much i love to travel and how happy i am to be able to do this with ease now....yay!!!!🎉

feel free to send any questions my way and again, please let me know if you are paris bound....i will be in the states for a short month, but otherwise i will be here....be warned though....paris is in total gearing up phase for the olympics and there is a lot of construction, cleaning of buildings and price hiking going on....i am soooooo excited i will be attending 10 different events, and am hopeful it will all go smoothly, but you just never know😜

thanks for reading all the way to the end and i hope all is well with you and the folks in your life....

have a fab day 😎

dani