Off to Fes!

We are now about about Day 3 of the trip. . . .and it's off to the city of Fes!

"Fez" is the hat. "Fes" is the city--a large city about 2/5-3 hours away. On a well planned tour, you get a break every two hours for bathrooms, coffee, and local color. So we stopped at a "market" at the side of the road where women who lived within walking distance set up stalls to sell buttermilk.



Also on offer is a form of Moroccan muesli, which is what the bowl is for.  There were about a dozen stalls in a row just behind the shoulder of the road, most of which were women selling the same thing. How do they differentiate? It just doesn't make sense for the way we understand the world. But it's personal relationship. You stop and you visit the same woman every morning on your way to work, buy the milk, eat your breakfast with her, and come back the next day.

While the purchasers seemed to be commuters pulling their cars over, the sellers used more traditional means of hauling their goods.

Dee Dee loves animals

We drove on a bit farther and stopped to walk through a market--amazing and beautiful produce, and so much of it. Northern Morocco is quite agricultural, and they can grow everything they need, plus export more--except for grains. They do import wheat and barley, which is maybe not a surprise given how prevalent bread is in the meals we ate.

(Don't even ask how the Californians reacted to all the bread. Paleo and gluten-free diets are not really A Thing in Morocco!)

But look at these gorgeous vegetables! And this is just a small market town, on the road between cities. Whole Foods should look amazing.

As a town, the taxis were a small upgrade from the burros of the buttermilk stop--they were horses!

But it was also a completely modern town, and we walked through the market and crossed the street to a coffee shop that would be entirely at home in any California city. There we were introduced to "nouss nouss"--a word which translates to "half and half." This is the Moroccan equivalent to "café au lait" perhaps? Since I don't drink coffee, I can't tell. It appeared to be a glass of coffee that was about half milk, and was probably highly sweetened as well. Our group liked it, but learned to also order an additional espresso shot for the caffeine kick they needed.

Since I don't drink coffee, I ordered mint tea--served with enough fresh mint to make a mojito. And an apparent legacy of the French Protectorate era is the existence of some amazing pastries.

 This lovely coffee break ran me about $2.40.

Then it was time to get back on the bus and drive into Fes.