{"id":25607,"date":"2017-01-09T19:16:24","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T19:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=25607"},"modified":"2017-03-07T21:22:55","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T21:22:55","slug":"fes-el-bali-incredible-fez-medina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/fes-el-bali-incredible-fez-medina\/","title":{"rendered":"Into Fes el Bali, the Incredible Fez Medina"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zagan the motorhome remains happily ensconced in the airy, hassle-free Camping Diamant Vert a few kilometers south-west of the old town of Fes, the UNESCO-listed Fez Medina. British-registered motorhomes make up half of the vans here at the moment and there are relatively few French camping cars to be see. A wheelchair-bound German chap has arrived to one side of us, impressively alone and towing a trailer with what appears to be a small 4×4 truck complete with crane in the back so he can take his chair with him.<\/p>\n

\"Morroco!

Morroco! Famous for high quality carpets, among many other things.<\/p><\/div>\n

When Ju and I last visited Fes<\/a>, five years ago, we took a guided tour of the medina, and were quite amazed at the place. Since then we’ve visited a fair few other old towns across Morocco and Tunisia (I even wrote a medina survival guide<\/a>\u00a0at one point), but Fes remains the one which has presented the biggest impact to us. When Phil and Jules said they were interested in doing a tour of the old town here, we were more than happy to join ’em.<\/p>\n

\"Fes

Fes Old Town<\/p><\/div>\n

Guiding in Morocco is big business, and you can almost spot the guides by their shining, new cars. There are a fairly limited number of official guides, the ones who know what they’re talking about, can speak various languages and have passed the exams to prove it. There are, no doubt, a good number of unofficial guides too, who risk fines or imprisonment if caught. Given the fact their families might suffer hardship if these ‘faux guides’ don’t seek out work, it’s understandable they’re willing to take the risk.<\/p>\n

\"Fes\"

Fes<\/p><\/div>\n

Since arriving in Fes we’ve had three offers of guides. One was from our French neighbours, who’d sourced their guy through a friend. He cost 200 Dh (about \u00a316) for the both of them, including transport to and from the campsite, and afterwards our neighbour advised he was excellent but only spoke French. We were also offered a guide by a tout in the new town, who quoted a price of 100 Dh (\u00a38), which sounded too cheap to be an official guide. Finally our British\/Kiwi neighbours had used the guide attached to the campsite (his name is Elouafi, and he pays the campsite 10% of his income for exclusive access to us lot), and had paid 350 Dh if I remember rightly, about \u00a328. We met Elouafi (who asked us to call him ‘Wafi’) one evening at the site, he spoke good English and quoted a price of 600 Dh for the four of us, which he reduced to 500 Dh when we asked for a discount. In the end that’s what we went for, and got a 6 hour tour for about \u00a310 a head. I’m fairly sure we could have got a much cheaper price, but the tour was great and having easy access to a Berber to ask all of our burning questions was very useful.<\/p>\n

\"Us

Us four (plus Tigger) at the Royal Palace<\/p><\/div>\n

The tours seem to follow a similar pattern: depending on where you start off, you either head to the Royal Palace first, or to a viewpoint overlooking the city. The palace is only viewable from the outside, no public access is possible and we have to make do with admiring the enormous\u00a0metal-clad ornate gates. The palace grounds are huge, large enough for an aircraft landing strip within the walls, but even so the king only spends a fortnight a year there. Next to the palace is the Jewish medina, where Jews long resided since being kicked out of Spain some centuries back.<\/p>\n

\"Crafts

Crafts are practised in the open or in tiny workshops around the medina<\/p><\/div>\n

Wafi took us to a quieter area of the viewpoint over the city, alongside a sprawling cemetery where we stood and admired the clustered-together city from above. Getting permission from Wafi we wandered into the cemetery to look around and get some photos, which seemed to cause some issues with the guardian. I recall being told in no uncertain terms to exit a cemetery in Tunisia, and I’ve a feeling us non-Muslims aren’t really welcome in these sensitive areas.<\/p>\n