Paris

We arrived here on Tuesday 21st September for 4 nights after a 3 hour flight from Marrakesh..yes everything is so close here...even Africa.
The change is a bit af a shock to the system but we are coping.....it is Paris after all!

Montmartre

Ben found us a cheap hotel online in a great spot just near a metro station in Montmartre so we are right in the middle of things. This is such a great area, well Picasso,Van Gogh,Renoir and Tolouse-Lautrec had it right...elegant apartment blocks line the steep streets, tree lined squares and lovely small shops selling the most exquisite pastries, fruit,cheese.wine and bread...what more could you want!

The French,despite what I had been told, are very friendly and generous and so so polite....it is a pleasure to be here amongst them....The language is not too  much of a problem as most speak a little English and are very accomodating.
So far we have been to the Louvre (it is enormous),Musee D'orsay and Musee Rodin and have glimpsed the Eiffel Tower on several occasions (hope to actually get to it today) and spotted the Arc de Triumph in the distance. It is such an elegant city with very grand boulevards and opulent public buildings and gardens. It is much more spread out than I expected but the metro is extensive (over 200 stations) and very very efficient.

We visited THE booksop on the left-bank opposite Notre-Dame....what a treat...great shop, great staff....

The downside to all this is that Ben has not been all that well since Granada and yesterday we had a dramatic exit from the Louvre in a French ambulance(nothing but praise for the French health system and the Louvre staff) as he was on the verge of collapse....a chronic stomach problem that needs to be addressed when he gets back to the UK...he has been pushing himself and has been told to rest...so he is stuck in the hotel until we leave tomorrow by train to London. So it has not been as easy as it seems ......

Kath

Morocco continued

We took a day trip out to the Atlas Mountains, in theory only an hours drive, but after numerous  photo stops where there was always a shop selling local wares or a man on a bicycle with a portable shop.(even though we said no shopping).it took a couple of hours. The mountains are very rugged and steep and covered in snow in winter which must be a sight to behold. We took  a walk to a waterfall up the side of a ravine...however the side of the track was covered in more shops selling everything from cooked tagines to fossils...not quite the wilderness experience we are used to.

The last day we wandered the streets looking for a palace we never found...but did locate the tomb of past rulers(Saadin Tombs) that had lay hidden (entrance blocked by the next ruler who had a grudge) for 300 years and was only discovered in 1916 by air....it would have been something in it's day when the carved ceilings were covered in gold and not overrun by 200 Italin tourists.

Then went to Yves Saint Laurent's garden Jardin Morelle..a riot of colour and exotic plants and a real haven from the heat and bustle of Marrakesh.....back through the souks to the riad and some much needed time out...it is a pretty challenging and exhausting place

Morocco

Ben arrived in Granada on Sunday(Maris went back to the UK the same day) and after a visit to the Alhambra we headed off on the Tuesday by bus to Algeciras on the Straits of Gibralta for the ferry to Tangier...this took all day and some of the night ...we arrived about 8pm..
Ben has been able to access cut price hotels for us along the way on his laptop...wi -fi seems to be everywhere..Morocco is no exception. So we have been living in style for not a lot of money!

Tangier was a busy port city...with a transient feel to it....but still the walk through the old medina the next morning was like stepping back in time and a shock to the senses....spice,herbs,veges and meat all crammed into narrow crumbling alleyways full of Moroccons in Arab dress...sat in the square drinking mint tea from a glass taking it all in. Now there is a mosque on every corner and the call to prayer echoes through the city via a multitude of  speakers set in the minarets.

Did a bit of a Beat trail as we had to wait until the end of the day for our train to Fez. So checked out the hotel where William Burroughs wrote 'The Naked Lunch' and was visited by Jack, Alan et al...and had a cuppa in the literary hangout The Cafe de Paris...frequented by Burroughs, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Capote and Tenessee Williams to name but a few.
The food has vastly improved in quality and price...tagines and Moroccan salads to die for

Arrived in Fez late at night and thanks to Ben's internet skills and lastminute.com we were amazed at the extravagance of the 300 year old riad (old upper middle class townhouses set around a tiled courtyard and fountains)we had welcoming us in Fez. Just step outside the door and the steet is full of rubble and rubbish and looks like all the rest.
The next day we took a guide with us to navigate the maze that is the medina...12,000 alleyways with no street names and crowded with people and donkeys...and mosques of course....a great experience...

Tanneries in Fez

Our riad  had a terrace on the roof with an amazing view of the whole medina and the call to prayer from mosque to mosque was almost deafening. The people are very friendly and helpful and we are managing to negotiate most things without any French or Arabic.

The next day we took a train (the trains are excellent and very modern...make ours look very second-rate) to Marrakesh and after a very long journey of 8 hours we managed to be ripped off by the taxi driver and porter in the first half hour...the guard is now up and we are now very careful....'very democratic price' holds no weight here!
Our riad is in the old part of the city on the edge of the medina and is very nice indeed (could be straight out of one of those Moroccan interiors books we have had at work)...again Ben's find , although the little Moroccan man who runs the place is a cross between Basil Fawlty and Manuel (not very helpful at all) no doubt because he works 14 hour days for not much pay ...

Djemaa el-Fna at dusk

We have to walk through the souks (market stalls) to get to the main square, Djemaa el-Fna, where it all happens..dance troups,snake charmers,acrobats,magicians,food stalls and hustlers....