(MOROCCO) Essaouira

The road to Agadir in Essaouira is quite pretty, and she sometimes think of the famous Road One connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco when the mountain meets the sea and the mist is involved.




We meet, in addition to green oasis in a fairly rocky environment, fish sellers who offer their fishing all cool ... right on the road, and argan oil salesmen lazing in the shade of an argan which seem so alone in the middle of nowhere they seem emerged from a hiding place underground where they return after nightfall.



Once in Essaouira, we leave the car on a guarded parking lot at the entrance, as well as Rhodes, the old city is surrounded by a wall and winding medieval streets are closed to cars.
As soon as we enter we are struck by the atmosphere there, very different from Agadir (that's saying something!). Tourists make their somehow a path between mopeds, bicycles, carts, dogs, cats and traders stalls overflowing on the dirt road, it honks, it discusses, it rattle in a joyful and bustling brothel. At the time it makes me think of the streets of Old Delhi in India!

We quickly go out of the main streets to engulf us in the narrow lanes that actually have nothing to envy the medieval streets of Rhodes, looking for our riad. Moroccan traditional habitat and heir straight Roman villas, riads are multi-storey houses arranged around a courtyard open to the sky, which usually has no windows open to the outside (to keep freshness), and a roof terrace ideal for taking his little dej 'in the morning.

Abandoned today by a majority of Moroccans for more modern homes, many riads are hotels for welcome tourists for a change of scenery. Indeed architecture promises a radical change from a traditional hotel, even if the lack of windows in the bedrooms, the bathroom equipment and often very relative sound isolation may confuse at first.

We therefore explored Essaouira for 3 days, and it is a treat for all the senses. The busy streets is a sight in itself as it is fascinating to walk through the maze of traders, artisans, restorers, dealers, artists, beggars, tourists, demonstrators of all stripes, show reinforced when the call prayer that ends the fast of Ramadan and sees the streets are empty in a wink. Then once everyone has eaten, the show starts for the whole beginning of the night.

One of the interesting facts is that Essaouira has long been a city Jewish majority fully integrated with the Moroccan company with 17,000 Jewish inhabitants to 10,000 Muslims. However almost all Jewish families left in Israel after the Six Day War, and the old Jewish quarter is a fascinating spectacle of ruined buildings along the sea.

Essaouira is also known for its annual festival of Gnawa music. Gnawa music is a music of African origin, with very different sounds of traditional Moroccan music, which is played by the descendants of black slaves who lived in Morocco. Unfortunately we arrived well after the festival and we did not take advantage, but we could listen to the music during a special evening, it's not too hard to find a restaurant that organizes. This is a very rhythmic music and very catchy.



Overall I loved this city, the medina is beautiful and again the spectacle of the streets alone is worth a visit. This is certainly a city not to be missed if you go to the south of Morocco, and Agadir car only 2:30 along a beautiful road, it would be a shame to miss.

source : blogueur-pro.com