Tag Archives: street

Essaouira — two special places

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As we wandered, we stumbled into a really cute little square, the Place Chrib Atay. It looked like it would be a good place for a fine vegetarian meal, but we were committed to fresh grilled fish at one of the stalls in Place Moulay Hassan. Or maybe a good place to paint a canvas of shops and facades, but we weren’t there long enough for that. It was, however, a good place for a few photographs, and here they are.

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sm17 IMG_3720In the heart of the old medina, at the intersection of the two main thoroughfares, lies the Souk Jdid, the main fresh produce and meat market of the town. It’s laid out so that whichever direction you approach it from, you must enter through a gate. It’s pure theatre of city planning–and it works.

sm30 IMG_1036Through the gate we went, and into the broad street beyond. With its arched colonnades and bounded by a gate at either end of the block, this could have been the finest street in this city of fine streets.

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sm32 IMG_3722 souk jdidInside the souk were the usual assortment of meat and produce vendors, with perhaps a special emphasis on fish–as you would expect.

sm36 IMG_1037We only had an hour or two to wander Essaouira’s streets before eating a quick lunch at one of the fish stalls and meeting our ride to Casablanca. We made the most we could of the time, but I’m sure we missed a lot. I regret this. Though it’s small enough to get a good sense of its character in this short time, I learned that Essaouira would be a good place to linger for several days. A place to explore every little street. A place to enjoy the beach and the food and the art and the shops and the texture and patterns of everyday life. A place to come back to. 

And we do hope to come back to Morocco some day.

The streets of Essaouira

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The medina of Essaouira is different yet again from either Fes or Marrakech. For one thing, it’s probably smaller. And for another, Essaouira is a center for artists, and so there are a lot of shops–especially in areas where tourists are likely to go–that sell art. And other items for tourists. And there are a lot of areas in the medina where tourists are likely to go. Also, it is entirely pedestrian. No automobiles, no motorbikes, no donkey carts.

Also, in a weird way, it’s kind of like Washington D.C., only with less traffic and narrower streets. That is to say, in the late eighteenth century a European planner was brought in, who laid out a grid of major straight streets around which the less-planned minor streets evolved. In fact, the very name “Essaouira,” according to one source, means “well designed.” The plan of Washington DC was done by the French architect Pierre L’Enfant in 1791. The plan of Essaouira was done by the French architect Theodore Cornut in 1764.

And the combination of the planned and the random, the European and the Moroccan, is completely charming.

Narrow streets provide shade and surprises.

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Two major streets define ninety-degree axes that demarcate the city. These are broad and vibrant pedestrian thoroughfares lined with shops and hotels.

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In the next post, we’ll look at a couple of special spaces in this lovely town.

 

Fes – streets of the medina

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What gives the medina of Fes such character are its streets. They are narrow and intense. And almost completely pedestrian. There was the occasional donkey delivering goods to the shops–“medina taxis,” the natives joked.

We hardly knew whether to look at the people, or the shops, or the wares arrayed attractively in the streets, or the architectural gems that appear here and there–or just to sink into the experience, the world’s complete opposite of a sensory-deprivation chamber, and enjoy everything.

This broad square is just inside one of the gates.

 

Here we look down from above at the texture of the light, the street, the wares, and the people.

   

Maybe these few examples provide a good idea of the beauty of the busy market streets. And it turns out that the quiet side streets have their beauty, too.