ROAD TRIP

Sunday May 18, 2008

I know these pictures are small, but you should be able to click on them and enlarge them to see details. Like the smithy taking a picture of me with his cell phone while I am taking a picture of him.
Today's Sunday Drive Destination is Taroudant. A walled city of 60,000 people. The most famous resident is the Ex- President of France, Jaques Chirac.

It is a 1 hour journey to the quaint city of Taroudant.

A nice city with a new military installation......
And very old walls and gates. Taroudant is called the "Grandmother of Marrakech" because it is a scaled down, slowed down town that resembles Marrakech with it's surrounding ramparts. Unlike Marrakech, Taroudant contains almost the whole city within it's walls. Taroudant is known for it's jewelry and carpets. It's a much more relaxed place to purchase these items.


Some gates are very old and not for vehicle use.


Other gates are newer.....
Before we ever entered the gates of the city a young man who spoke English found us and offered to give us a tour. His name was Hassan, and he was a wonderful tour guide.


He showed us things we never would have known about if he hadn't been there. Like this nice shady place which is actually the parking garage for your tired ... er.......uh, Donkey, after you make the long journey into town from the country.

I saw this shop and thought of my daughters. It is a real Moroccan shoe store.

And this is the blacksmiths shop. Somethings may seem a little primitive to us, but they all have cell phones!
Children playing in the 'street' outside their house.

Then I saw this little fellow watching us..... Hassan explained what the pile of wood was.

They us it in this bakery......
Where every morning they fire up this oven and bake the bread. And believe me, the bread is delicious.
Dates and figs and other fruits from the region.

Hassan also pointed out cool architecture, like this cool plaster entry.

The above picture is of the ancient Jewish quarter of Taroudant.

I don't know how short the Jewish people were, but they didn't need very big doors. :-)

He took us to and all natural pharmacy. Here is the Pharmacist.

And their homemade herbal remedies.

Here are ladies of the pharmacy makeing Argan Oil.

We went to the carpet sellers and saw many other things, but I already have too many pictures on this blog. We left town hoping to come back on a Saturday so we can buy silver or shoes or rugs, and walk on the old walls.
As we left town we said goodbye to the billboard of the King, Mohammed the VI.