The White Wolves

So, we arrived in Taroudant after several hours on buses and were met by our French host Catherine together with friend Said. They showed us round, including the best fishmonger in the fish market , where to buy avocados ( off a giant barrow load) and whizzed us through the souks to the main square which is the beating heart of town. Eat at the Yassmin cafe, they advised, so a couple of hours later we did. Tagines there are cooked to order so we waited and watched the life of the Place, and at the very moment our food arrived, the police did too, wrestling a man into a back room of the cafe. All eyes on the Place ( lots) turned towards the Yassmin. Meanwhile we were a couple of mouthfuls into our tagines when rain seemed to come from a cloudless sky above, straight onto our plates.

All sorts of things ensued: we explained we couldn’t eat the food as we had no idea what had landed in them; the patron fairly reluctantly removed them though he said they had no more food, and then a police officer arrived to ask if we wanted to press charges on the person in the top terrace of the cafe who had, it appeared, spilt a bottle of water which had run down the awning into our plates. All eyes on the Place now turned towards us. No of course we didn’t want to press charges: we just wanted some food! This arrived eventually (a small plate to share). End of story, but quite a dramatic first day in Taroudant.

We told Catherine the next day and she said that the French would say we were like White Wolves (Louves Blanches), or as Lilli said, sticking out like a sore thumb. More elegant in French. ….

Here is a photo of the Yassmin- top terrace – bottle of water; table at the bottom – ours. Just to set the scene.

And ps, the man arrested was nothing to do with the water. We heard he was high on drugs and spent the night cooling off in a police cell.

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Morocco for Christmas – getting there

It was some time in October , on a cold night and after a couple of glasses of wine, that we found ourselves not only planning but booking a trip to Taroudant, on the South side of the High Atlas Mts. but not in a straightforward way, no it seemed a good idea at the time to fly from Bristol to Malaga and make our way down by bus, boat and train. Which is what we did. Here we are looking a bit shell shocked having a picnic on some steps in Tarifa, from where the ferry to Africa departs.

Arrival in Tangier an hour or so later.

Arrival in Marrakech Station a couple of days later

Through the mountains to Agadir by bus

And another bus to Taroudant.

Doing WordPress on my phone is driving me mad so I’ll be back later

Morocco for Christmas

Mainly because Morocco is not Christmassy at all, though we did spot a tree with helpful bits of cotton wool on it

And this might come in handy too, if only we were here for New Year (we’re not)

But what we HAVE had is a lovely little Riad to stay in, in the centre of Taroudant

And weather in the ’20’s

And some adventures.

More later …