Essaouira in white and blue

Right on the ocean front, Essaouira is well know for it’s blue windows and doors, strong winds and Gnawa music (a sort of Moroccan jazz).

This small fisherman town has a nice old medina filled with hidden treasures and artists sitting at every street corner. 

I picked up some of these oversized curtain tassels!

Msemen is a kind of crepe that’s very flakey. Perfect with honey and a glass of mint tea!

Ahhh…. the beach!

I left my heart in Casablanca! Part 4

The Habbous, now considered as the new medina, was built by the French in the 1930s. This neighbourhood, adjacent to the Royal Palace, holds archways that hide hundreds of little shops that sell traditional Moroccan crafts. It’s winding streets are also the home of many Moroccan families.

We visited the Habbous early one rainy Saturday morning. That explains the empty streets, which really isn’t representative of Casablanca because the streets never seem to be empty!

A great place to walk around and do a bit of shopping as well as door spotting. The doors of the Habbous really caught my attention. Every door, and the home that lies behind it, has it’s own personal style…

My hubby made me rediscover the pomegranate. It’s a very popular fruit in Morocco and you can picks some up on any street corner… literally!

This great little number is called le 17ème  étage… the 17th floor (because of it's 17 floors) and was Casablanca’s first tall building.

I left my heart in Casablanca! Part 3

Kisaria Jmiaa is a smaller market that is adjacent to the Kisaria Hafari .  Winding alleyways of food and spices.  Just my kind of thing!

Olives! Olives! Olives!

There is a section where all of the butchers are grouped together. You can go purchase your cut of meat and bring it over to a little stand where another man’s job is to grill the meat for you and serve it up with some grilled tomatoes and onions, bread and mint tea. The lamb chops were my favourite!

Drinking coffee on the terrasse of a café is a daily ritual in the Moroccan way of life (especially for men). That’s exactly what we did at least once every  day.

Remember the little red taxis of Casa? Here is the big taxi. Old white Mercedes (that date back to the 80s) in which you squeeze in 6 passengers plus the driver, so that’s 7. Two people in the front passenger seat and four peolple squeezed into the back banquette. These taxis aren’t used within the city but to travel between cities.

There aren’t very many big grocery stores like we are accustomed to here in North America. Very block has a little store like this one where you can buy anything form vegetables, to shampoo to cigarettes.