Monday, April 30, 2018

Moroccan Photo of the Day - Bryan Dawe


Fez Morning is the work of photographer, artist and satirist, Bryan Dawe
(Click on image to enlarge)

See more in our series Photo of the Day 


The View from Fez welcomes contributions to our Photo of the Day Series

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Saturday, April 28, 2018

NOT FISSA, NOT FUSSY: MORE FASSI AND FIZZY

A review of Through The Peacock Gate by Australian author, journalist and academic, Ken Haley

NOT FISSA, NOT FUSSY: MORE FASSI AND FIZZY

By Ken Haley

Unlike the jailbird who refuses the governor’s offer of conjugal relations with his wife because he doesn’t want to end his sentence with a proposition, I’ll kick off with one: the best of books are several books coexisting under the same cover.

Two cases in point: To Kill a Mockingbird scintillates because it is about family relations (with particular emphasis on the father-daughter bond) and about racial justice. A Tale of Two Cities succeeds by being simultaneously a Dickensian fable and a social history tract on the French Revolution that would have had Edmund Burke nodding (in approval, not off).

Through the Peacock Gate – one of the best books to come my way this year (and I’ve notched up nearly fifty with a third of the year gone, so this is not stinting praise) – is just the book for you if that long-planned escape from an Antipodean winter to Mediterranean climes isn’t going to eventuate this year. The purchase price of getting Sandy McCutcheon’s latest novel shipped from Britain is far less than the cost of sending yourself in the opposite direction, even in the age of the discount airfare.

What’s that you say? You’re not an armchair traveller? Pity. Maybe I could interest you in a tale of spirituality in the so-called 21st century? Of how the present is haunted by the past, of how everything you see and do is not everything there is, not the half of it? Of how the wisdom of the Sufi, a sect that has fascinated and scandalised mainstream Islam for centuries, can inhabit a man transplanted from traditionally Catholic Ireland? …

All right, I can tell a choosy reader when I come across one. I see you’re not interested in romances that rhyme moon and majoun (edible cannabis – aha, now I have your attention!) any more than you revel in tales of djinns and madonnas (living in the materialist world, as you do). If it’s the delightful tickle of lust you’re after, don’t soil your hands with the postmodern equivalent of a penny dreadful: come hither behind the latticework of traditional Moroccan houses in the medina of Fez (where paradoxically you can be high in the Middle Atlas), and not only will you find yourself entranced by a maiden worthy of Nabokov’s pen, you will find the unlikeliest devotee of the Russian-American master waiting to conduct you on a literary tour when your passion for the physical is sated.

While on passions Nabokovian, this is also a work that no lepidopterist’s library should be without.

Ah, but you don’t order books on the wing! Fair enough. Perhaps political thrillers with overtones of 20th-century revolutionary zeal are more to your taste. When painting a tantalisingly foreshadowed encounter with the Shining Path guerrilla movement in the jungles of Peru, McCutcheon’s prose is as pellucid and gripping as Greene’s (think Our Man in Havana).

Then again, if psychology’s your thing, you should dive into these pages for the sensation of losing touch with (or should that be discovering?) reality, sanity and such states so reduced to the conventional in everyday discourse that they’re taken for granted even when least understood.

Or find enough food for thought here to underwrite a philosophical banquet.

On yet another tack, if you’re looking for the last Beat novel to make it into print, this may be it – William S. Burroughs without the drugs.

Surely it’s this mixture of themes and perspectives that give McCutcheon’s new novel its sense of rounded solidity. The worlds you enter here are palpable, with an aura of undeniable credibility generated by the ethereal touches the author has added with all the assuredness and generosity of a lexicographical Titian.

The djinni – printers used to call them gremlins – aren’t always so benign. One that got into the inkpot and drank its fill kept on misspelling “led” (past tense of “to lead”) as if it were the substance they used to put in petrol. (So if you’re into heavy metal this novel has something for you too.) These are blemishes that should be ironed out in the second (lead-free) edition this book so richly deserves.

An enthusiasm for stylistic innovation and blending has been a hallmark of McCutcheon’s previous work as well. In Black Widow, published in the mid-2000s, the author of The Magician’s Son – in which he had written movingly of discovering in middle age that he had a living brother of whose existence he had been oblivious all his life – turned in an account of Russia’s grisly Beslan school massacre as vivid as any breaking-news report from the crime scene itself.

The newest member of McCutcheon’s literary brood shares certain traits you might call family resemblances – never a dull sentence, exquisitely timed plot development, human empathy writ large. If there is one theme he mines better than any this time around, it’s that of square-peg expatriates in the round-hole Maghreb.

When your Irishman, Marcus Brennan (now motoring under the alias of Richard), holds a revealing discussion with his local camel butcher, the artisan’s observations on Western and Japanese tourists as seen through Arab eyes – insightful as they are witty – would be worthy of Mahfouz.

As McCutcheon has lived in Fez for over a decade now, his pen pictures of the expat community there – replete with the odd unappealing Canadian or image-obsessed American – are no doubt drawn from the life and are bound, in at least a few cases, to earn him the café-table solitude he must sometimes covet.

Serious though its themes frequently are, humour lives here too: when Richard meets Jonathan, an American visiting Fez, our hero spots that he’s a student at Fuller Theological Seminary. Momentarily convinced he’s in the presence of a mind reader, Jonathan blurts out: ‘How did you …?’ to which Richard replies, deadpan: ‘It’s on your cap, Jonathan.’

The novel’s cover design, full of swirling and whirling kinetics instantly enticing the reader into a world of Islamic and pre-Islamic figures, is the work of Bryan Dawe, whose role as straight guy to another gifted Kiwi, the late John Clarke, immortalised them both in the Australian TV-viewing public’s mind – the part of it that has a mind, at any rate.

With the technology we have literally at our fingertips these days, I suppose it would be easier to scroll up, delete the first line of this review’s third paragraph and type it out afresh. But that would be to reckon without this reviewer’s love of laziness. So let me instead stop here and issue a correction: like the city in which it is set, Through the Peacock Gate, with its multiple avenues of significance, is not simply one of the best books to come my way this year. It’s several.

The reviewer Ken Haley
Ken Haley is a twice-published author and Walkley Award winner whose first career as a journalist introduced him to many newsdesks, from the famous Dimboola Banner to the also quite well-known Times, Sunday Times, Independent and Observer in London, the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, Johannesburg's Star (guess where!) and the Gulf Daily News of Bahrain. Now six years into his second career as a part-time academic, he is currently teaching Master's students in a course of his own device at the Centre for Advancing Journalism in the University of Melbourne. Ken, whose travels have taken him to 134 countries, harbours fond memories of Morocco where, in palmier days, he appeared in Casablanca. (As well as Marrakech, Rabat and Fez.)

Where to buy a copy:
The Arabic Language Institute in Fez,
2 Rue Ahmed Hiba, Fes, Ville Nouvelle 30000
Beacon Books (UK)
Amazon (USA)
Amazon (AUS)


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Friday, April 27, 2018

Moroccan Delicacy Used to Transport Hashish!


A briouat is a traditional Moroccan sweet or savoury puff pastry filled with meat mixed with cheese, lemon and pepper. They are wrapped in warqa in a triangular or cylinder shape. The main ingredients: meat (chicken or lamb), cheese, lemon, black pepper; herbs and spices. Now a new ingredient has been discovered by the police in Tangier who recently seized 10 kg of cannabis resin hidden in the form of ... briouats


After pineapples , bricks of orange juice , or boxes of cereals , it is the turn of briouates to serve as a hiding place to carry drugs.

The police and customs at the port of Tangier city yesterday aborted an attempt to smuggle 10 kg of cannabis resin camouflaged as briouats police sources said.

"The vigilance of the police and customs elements at the passenger control centre within the port has allowed, following a thorough search, the arrest of an employee in one of the shipping companies based in the same port, "said the same source, adding that a man was preparing to embark with this amount of camouflaged drug in the form of homemade briouats stored in a cake box.

The man, born in 1982, was placed in custody for the purposes of the investigation conducted by the judicial police at the port of Tangier-ville on the instructions of the Prosecutor General, according to the authorities of the city.

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Latest Moroccan Novel - On Sale Now


“Sandy McCutcheon’s latest novel Through the Peacock Gate is the kind of book those of us who live between Occident and Orient have waited an entire lifetime to read. The interweaving layers, the quality of the prose and, most of all, the raw bedrock of cultural knowledge on which it is founded, makes this an invaluable handbook to the mysteries and complexities of Eastern lore. Its pages conjure the mesmerising, magical heart of secret Morocco.” - Tahir Shah, author of The Caliph’s House

Read First Review Here
Where to Buy a copy:
The Arabic Language Institute in Fez,
2 Rue Ahmed Hiba, Fes, Ville Nouvelle 30000
Beacon Books
Amazon (USA)
Amazon (AUS)

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Thursday, April 26, 2018

Saturday - Jazz, Swing, Soul and Funk


ALC-ALIF Music Club: Corina Kwami in Concert Saturday, April 28 at 7 PM - ALIF Riad, 6 Derb Drissi, Batha, Fes Medina

Corina is a performer of genres related to jazz music and dance. As a singer and tap dancer, she is motivated by the story-telling power of jazz and its potential for connecting people across genres using jazz as a medium. She has performed as a solo artist and with different bands playing originals and covering big band swing, afro, soul and funk. Through her performance and passion for cities and planning more broadly as an academic, she has connected with people through jazz in several cities across the globe in countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Rwanda, United Kingdom, United States, Colombia and Myanmar.

The concert is free and open to the public!

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Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Arty Days - Music and Dance in Casablanca



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Monday, April 23, 2018

Through the Peacock Gate - Now Available


The long awaited new novel from Sandy McCutcheon is now on sale. In Fez Through the Peacock Gate is available from the American Language Center Bookshop. On line it can be purchased direct from the publisher, Beacon Books

Through the Peacock Gate is also available from Amazon
“Sandy McCutcheon’s latest novel Through the Peacock Gate is the kind of book those of us who live between Occident and Orient have waited an entire lifetime to read. The interweaving layers, the quality of the prose and, most of all, the raw bedrock of cultural knowledge on which it is founded, makes this an invaluable handbook to the mysteries and complexities of Eastern lore. Its pages conjure the mesmerising, magical heart of secret Morocco.” - Tahir Shah, author of The Caliph’s House

Read review here
Where to Buy a copy:
The Arabic Language Institute in Fez,
2 Rue Ahmed Hiba, Fes, Ville Nouvelle 30000
Beacon Books
Amazon (USA)
Amazon (AUS)

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Spring in the Moroccan Countryside


The arrival of spring in Morocco heralds a profusion of beautiful flowers everywhere from roadsides to mountainsides. It is also the favourite foraging season for those keen on the abundant herbs which can be found 


The View From Fez accompanied Miriam Hicklin of Atlas Apothecary on an expedition to Mt Zalagh to collect marigolds, which will be turned into calendula cream.

"Morocco has a huge number of herbs. There is a cross-over of about 40% with those that grow on the other side of the Mediterranean. For reference, I mainly use texts from the 16th and 17th centuries, which was when most of the research on medicinal herbs was done."


Miriam Hicklin runs introductory workshops on herbs, as well as ones on herbal preparation for children and foraging expeditions to the Middle Atlas. 
For more information, CLICK HERE. 

Photos and story by Suzanna Clarke. 

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Thursday, April 19, 2018

Photojournalist Wanted for Fes Sacred Music Festival


The Fes Festival of World Sacred Music is on from the 22nd to 30th of June and The View From Fez needs a photojournalist to join our team in Morocco!

If you have the necessary skills to work fast and efficiently, love music and can speak English, French or Arabic, then this is a chance to be part of a fabulous festival.

This is an unpaid gig, but a wonderful chance to visit Fez with accommodation and meals provided as well as a media pass to all concerts and possibly assistance with an airfare from Europe. You will need your own camera and computer as well as a heap of energy.

Our small team covers all the major concerts and publishes a review on the same day.

If you are interested please email us at theviewfromfez@gmail.com with "photojournalist" in the subject line.

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Airbnb and Booking.com to be Taxed in Morocco

According to the US site Bloomberg, Airbnb and Booking.com will be taxed in Morocco from 2019. It is seen as a victory for Moroccan hoteliers and travel agencies, and will result in a possible price increase for users of both booking platforms

The new tax, effective in 2019, is expected to delight professionals in the Moroccan tourism sector who have been denouncing the lack of tax fairness for several months.

According to Medhi Taleb, central director in charge of regulation, quality and development at the Ministry of Tourism, quoted in the article of our colleagues, "undercover inspectors will work in collaboration with officials of the Ministry of Tourism as well as responsible for the tax authorities to ensure the application of this measure".

According to the same source, the authorities will also help Moroccan online travel platforms to offer attractive offers to strengthen their presence on international sites such as Booking.

A tax that has proven itself in Europe

With the implementation of this new measure, Morocco will join the list of countries that apply taxes to such platforms. A list that already includes France, Spain, Germany or the United States.

In large cities in France for example, where the number of nights is limited to 120, professionals who provide a booking service or rental of accommodation online are subject to the tourist tax. For the year 2017, Airbnb will for example pay €13.5 million to local authorities in France.

On December 8, the French National Assembly decided that from January 1, 2019, municipalities may increase the tourist tax on this type of accommodation.

Such a tax should, eventually, bring money back to the Moroccan state, as 60% of the 10 million tourists who arrive in Morocco plan their trips on the Internet.

But, as in France, the collection of this tax will inevitably have repercussions on the users. The site of Airbnb states: " In the cities or regions where Airbnb has agreements with local authorities, Airbnb calculates the applicable local taxes and removes them from travellers at the time of Airbnb then pays the collected taxes to the relevant tax authorities on behalf of the hosts ".

The tax is welcomed by hoteliers and travel agencies in Morocco who have denounced the present situation as unfair competition. For Samir Kheldouni, CEO of Chorus Consulting, specialising in supporting tourism investors, this tax is a victory.

" Airbnb is an indispensable tourist actor in Morocco, but it is perfectly normal that it be taxed in the same way as the conventional hotel business.This situation of unfair competition was no longer acceptable, " he says.

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Fez International Festival of Amazigh culture - Full Programme


The 14th Fez International Festival of Amazigh culture on the 11th, 12th and 13th of May. It is a rare chance to learn more about Amazigh (Berber) culture


The festival features an international forum as well as concerts at Bab Makina

Concerts: BAB MAKINA 21:30 - 00:00

FRIDAY 11th MAY 2018
- AHIDOUS OULMES (Morocco)
-AICHA MAYA (Morocco)
-ORCHESTRA FAISAL (Morocco)

SATURDAY 12th MAY 2018
- CARISHTO GROUP (Italy)
- SAMI RAY (Morocco)
- FATIMA TACHTOUKT (Morocco)

SUNDAY 13th MAY 2018
- MAREA FLAMENCA GROUP (Catalogna, Spain)
- HOUSSA 46 (Morocco)
- DOUNIA BATMA (Morocco)


INTERNATIONAL FORUM

Forum Venue: Mérinides hotel       11-13 MAY 2018

Amazigh Culture and the Future of Democracy in North Africa

Program of the Forum
Friday 11 May
16:30 Arrival of participants
17:00: Opening of the Forum and the Festival
-Speech by the President of the Fes-Saiss Association
-Speech by the President of South North Center and the President of the Festival
-Speech by the honorary President of the Festival
-Speech by the President of the BMCE Foundation
-Speech by the President of the Fez-Meknes Region
-Speech by the Wali of Fez-Meknes
-Other Speeches
17:30 Tribute to the distinguished Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun
Testimonies: Mohammed Kabbaj, Nouzha Skalli, Abderrahman Tenkoul
18 :15 Inaugural speech: Amazigh Culture and democracy
Hassan Aourid
Moderator: Moha Ennaji
18 :30 Reception and Exhibitions Tour

Saturday 12 May
Morning
9 :00 – 12 :00
Room 2
Parallel Session: Workshop on Tifinagh Alphabet
By Amina Majdoub (General Inspector of the Amazigh language)
9 :00 - 10 :30
Room 1
First Session: The Amazigh Cultural Movement: review and prospects
Moderator: Fatima Sadiqi (INLAC, Morocco)
Speakers : Mohamed Arji (University of Fez), Abdallah Boumalek (IRCAM), Abdelouahad Mabrour (University of El Jadida), Ali Fertahi (University of Beni Mellal), Mohamed Chtatou (International University of Rabat), Driss Bouyahya (University of Meknes)
10 :30– 11 :00 Coffee break
11:00– 1 3:30
Room 2
Parallel Session: Workshop "Life and death of a book, from writing to oblivion"
Hosted by Jean-Marie Simon (French writer)
Room 1
11 :00 – 12 :30
Second Session : Amazighity, citizenship and democratic culture
Moderator: Omar Marrakechi (Fes Sais Assocation)
Speakers : Tarik Mira (Algeria), Moha Ennaji (INLAC, Fez), Driss Maghraoui (Al-Akhawayn University), Maria-Angels Roque (IE Med, Spain), George Joffé (Cambridge University, U.K), Filippo Bignami (University of Southern Switzerland- SUPSI)
12:30 – 13 :30
-Presentation of the general dictionary of the Amazigh language by Meftaha Ameur (IRCAM)
-Presentation of the novel "Funny Spring" by its author Youssouf Amine Elalamy
Moderator: Juliane Tauchnitz (University of Leipzig)

Saturday 12 May
Afternoon
15 :00 – 16 :30
Room 1
Third Session : Amazigh Culture, democracy and Literature
Moderator: Johan Goud (University of Utrecht)
Speakers : Jilali Saib (Morocco), Alberto Tonini (University of Florence), Abdelkader Benali (Amsterdam), Bouthaina Ben Kridis (University of Carthage), Juliane Tauchnitz (University of Leipzig), Hamid Bahri (City University of New York)
16:30 – 17 :00 Coffee break
Room 1
17:00 – 18 :00
Poetry reading: Saida Khiari, Bassou Oujebbour, Hammou Khalla, Mohamed Akouray
Moderator: Mohammed Moubtassime (University of Fez)
Room 2
17:00 – 18 :30
Parallel Session: Painting Workshop
Supervised by Khadija Madani Alaoui (University of Fez) and Tarek Sadki (University of Fez)

Sunday 13 May
Morning
9 :00 – 10 :30
Room 2
Parallel Session: Clown theatre for children (8 years plus)
By Annick Renault (France)
9 :00 – 10 :30
Room 1
Fourth Session : Amazigh Culture and Women’s Movement
Moderator: Fouad Saa (University of Fes)
Speakers : Loubna Amhair (Morocco), Aziza Ouguir (Morocco), Enza Palamara (François Rabelais University, Tours), Jean-Marie Simon (France), Fatima Sadiqi (INLAC, Morocco), Mohamed Taifi (United States)
10 :30 – 11:00 Coffee break
11 :00 – 12 :30
Room 1
Fifth Session : Amazigh Culture, Multiculturalism and Democracy after the "Arab Spring"
Moderator: Mohamed Bokbot (Dean of the Faculty of Letters, University of Fez)
Speakers : Diederik Vandewalle (Dartmouth College), Johan Goud (University of Utrecht), Noha Bakr (Egypt), Madina Touré (University of Nouakchott), Rachid Raha (The Amazigh World), Mino Vianello (University of Rome)
12:30 – 13 :00 -Photos Exhibitions "Ait Séghrouchen, Hommes Libres" by Michel Rissoan (France) : Commented by Jean-Marie Simon
Moderator: Mohand Rguig (Faculty of Letters, University of Fez)
13 :00 Recommendations and closing

Sunday 13 may
Afternoon
17 :00 – 19 :00 Guided Tour of the Medina (optional)

Commentators:
Souad Slaoui—El Hassan Hjiej-- Driss Rhomari--Rachid Elouardy--Kebir Sandi--Mohyiddine Benlakhdar--Khadija Hassala-- Mohammed Yachoulti--Fouad Saa--Fatima Hnini--Said Gafaiti--Mohand Rguig--Abdelmounaim Azzouzi--Abdeslam Jamai --Mustapha Aouine-- Kamal Elaissaoui-- Mounia Slighwa -- Karima Nour El Aissaoui—Assia Bouayad --Ahmed Falah

Photos Exhibitions by Michel Rissoan (France) OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE FESTIVAL
Paints Exhibitions by Khadija Madani Alaoui and Tarik Sadki



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Moroccan Photo of the Day- Suzanna Clarke


A cat finds water in Chefchaouen



Photograph: Suzanna Clarke


See more in our series Photo of the Day 


The View from Fez welcomes contributions to our Photo of the Day Series


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Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Programme for Fez Culinary Festival


DIPLOMATIE CULINAIRE - Troisième édition du Festival du 19 au 22 avril 2018 The third edition of the Festival of Culinary Diplomacy opens tomorrow.



For more information visit the official website or Facebook page

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Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Through the Peacock Gate Launched in Fez

Moroccans, Australians, Americans, British, German and French book lovers gathered on Monday at the ALIF Riad in the Fez Medina for he launch of Sandy McCutcheon's latest novel - Through the Peacock Gate.

The launch was performed by artist and satirist Bryan Dawe, now a resident of Tangier.

The stock of books was quickly sold but there are still copies available at the American Language Center Bookshop

The first edition on sale in Fez
Sandy McCutcheon signing for readers

Thanks to the crew from the American Language Center and Beaon Books for getting the books to Fez in time for the launch.

“Sandy McCutcheon’s latest novel Through the Peacock Gate is the kind of book those of us who live between Occident and Orient have waited an entire lifetime to read. The interweaving layers, the quality of the prose and, most of all, the raw bedrock of cultural knowledge on which it is founded, makes this an invaluable handbook to the mysteries and complexities of Eastern lore. Its pages conjure the mesmerising, magical heart of secret Morocco.” - Tahir Shah, author of The Caliph’s House
Photographs: Suzanna Clarke

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Tangier: The Book Fair launches its 22nd edition


The Book and Arts Fair Tangier starts from April 19 to 22, its 22nd edition. It takes the theme of "the meeting of the other with oneself" 

The Book Fair includes the participation of illustrious names of the world of letters and music such as Gilles Leroy, Ali Benmakhlouf and Mahi Binebine.

Among the artists who will perform there are rapper Tangier Muslim, Gnawa Diffusion and Marek Halter.

Pierre Bergé

The event will also pay tribute to Pierre Bergé, a French businessman and patron who had close ties with Tangier.

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Sunday, April 15, 2018

Monday 18:00 at ALIF Riad - Book Launch


Please join us for the launch of Sandy McCutcheon’s new novel, Through the Peacock Gate

Monday, April 16th at 6 PM
ALIF Riad, 6 Derb Drissi, Batha

The launch will be conducted by Australian satirist and artist, Bryan Dawe



This is a chance to purchase a signed, first edition of the novel.

“Through the Peacock Gate” takes you on the journey of a foreigner in Morocco, whose unexpected infatuation leads him into the very heart of the Sufi mystical experience. His descent into madness is exacerbated by his guilt over a tragedy in his past. As he recovers, he is forced to confront a female djinn during a Sufi ceremony in an encounter that could once again tip him back into insanity.

The novel is a rare example of contemporary English fiction drawing on traditional Moroccan folklore. Written in gripping English prose fused with Arabic words, the novel gives an authentic insight into a Westerner’s experience of modern Moroccan society, whilst simultaneously exposing the reader to the country’s rich cultural history by weaving classic Moroccan folk takes and the mysteries of Sufism into its fabric. The book not only explores the point where East and West merge, but the collision of the human world with the world of the djinns – mysterious shape-shifting creatures of an unseen realm.

“Sandy McCutcheon’s latest novel Through the Peacock Gate is the kind of book those of us who live between Occident and Orient have waited an entire lifetime to read. The interweaving layers, the quality of the prose and, most of all, the raw bedrock of cultural knowledge on which it is founded, makes this an invaluable handbook to the mysteries and complexities of Eastern lore. Its pages conjure the mesmerising, magical heart of secret Morocco.” - Tahir Shah, author of The Caliph’s House

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Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Free Concert :exciting traditional British folk songs


The Hot Tank Five bring an exciting mix of traditional folk songs from the British Isle, drawing from the Scottish, English and Irish folk traditions, and even highlighting a transatlantic folk connection to the American bluegrass tradition

The members of the band have learned the music over many years through oral tradition sung, learned and exchanged around a campfire, as has been the custom for hundreds of years. The Hot Tank 5 take these traditional songs and melodies, adding their own contemporary stamp, thereby contributing to the living tradition of folk music. Expect rousing sailor songs, relentless bluegrass reels and raucous drinking songs.

Hot Tank 5 in Concert! Traditional English Folk Music
Saturday April 14 @ 7 PM
ALIF Riad, 6 Derb Drissi, Batha Fes Medina

Free and open to the general public.
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Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Hats Off to New Exhibition in Fez

Artist Anne French finds inspiration for her whimsical creations in everyday Moroccan life
Artist Anne French with one of her creations

An exhibition of playfully decorated hats is currently on show at the gallery at Jardin des Biehn.

Based in the town of Rissani, on the edge of the Sahara Desert, Anne French says, "I love sitting at the market and watching everyone passing by."

Her latest creations are decorated with miniature objects that tell stories about the people of the region. "I was born in Meknes, and have lived in Rissani for 12 years. I work in any medium that takes my fancy."

The hats are available from €60 each.

Jardin des Biehn gallery is at 13, Akbat Sbaa, Douh, Fez Medina. Call +212(0)535 741 036


Anne French's inspiration was the souk at Rissani




Photos and story: Suzanna Clarke

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Monday, April 09, 2018

Book Launch in Fez


The official launch of Sandy McCutcheon's new novel, Through the Peacock Gate will be held on Monday April 16th at the ALIF Riad in the Medina. The launch will be conducted by Australian satirist and artist, Bryan Dawe. Everyone is welcome. This is a chance to purchase a signed, first edition of the novel


“Sandy McCutcheon’s latest novel Through the Peacock Gate is the kind of book those of us who live between Occident and Orient have waited an entire lifetime to read. The interweaving layers, the quality of the prose and, most of all, the raw bedrock of cultural knowledge on which it is founded, makes this an invaluable handbook to the mysteries and complexities of Eastern lore. Its pages conjure the mesmerising, magical heart of secret Morocco.” - Tahir Shah, author of The Caliph’s House

Everyone is welcome! 

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Friday, April 06, 2018

Marrakech to Athens Flights From October


The Irish low-cost company Ryanair has announced the launch of a line connecting Marrakech to Athens from October 29th. Ryanair will operate two flights, on Mondays and Fridays, between the two cities


The flights between Marrakech and Athens will be the only link between the two countries

The flight will be of four hours and 25 minutes , departures from the international airport of Marrakesh Menara will be at 6 o'clock in the morning, while the return of Athens are scheduled to 12 hours 50 minutes.

The new service will replace the Athens-Casablanca line launched by Air Mediterranean which has been temporarily suspended by the company.

Morocco welcomed 11.35 million tourists in 2017, an increase of 10% compared to 2016. Morocco aims to welcome nearly 20 million tourists by 2020.

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Thursday, April 05, 2018

Tangier: Books and art to celebrate the return of spring


More than a book fair, a real artistic and literary festival with concerts, workshops for children, theatre. This year, the Book and Arts Fair in Tangier has chosen to put on its spring clothes and renew its program for the summer season. For its 22nd edition, it becomes the "Spring of the Book and Arts of Tangier" and is more inclusive by diversifying the proposed activities, from April 19 to 22, at the Palace of the Italian Institutions and other places in Tangier

"An event, whatever it is, must be renewed since it decreases after a certain number of years. We wanted to give it a new birth hence the choice of 'spring', a symbol of regeneration," explains Jerome Migayrou, director of the French Institute of Tangier who organises the show in partnership with the Tangier Region Cultural Action Association.

This change will not only be aesthetic, since it also accompanies a new approach and a more varied program that includes concerts, workshops for children, screenings or theater. "Thanks to the abundance of activities and disciplines offered, everyone will be able to choose their activity in relation to what interests them the most."

The Palace of Italian Institutions will bring together the stands of different publishing houses and bookstores in the city, but other parts of the city will also host the many events of this event. The show will be held in schools, colleges and high schools, as well as at the Cinémathèque de Tangier, where Moroccan and French films and documentaries such as "Braguino" (2017) by Clément Cogitore will be screened.

For this new format, the show launches the first edition of "Tangier Arts Tour", a circuit that art lovers can follow to visit all the galleries of the city, which have set up 12 exhibitions under the theme of The Encounter. Visitors will find the abstract works of Nourredine Lahrech and Mhamed Cherifi at the Mohamed Drissi Gallery, the architectural photographs of Hicham Gardaf at the Delacroix Gallery, the anonymous portraits of Jaimal Odera at the American Legation, or the surprising paintings of Abdelkader Melehi at the Dar art gallery.

The Photoloft, Mahal art space, Conil, Artingis, Ibn Khaldoun, Conil Volubilis, Medina Art galleries and the Les insolites bookshop will exhibit the works of artists from Morocco and elsewhere throughout the Salon.

After celebrating youth in 2017 , the show chose this year to focus on "The Meeting - the other's own". This theme will be explored through the many round tables animated by one of the mainly Moroccan authors and experts, notably Driss Ksikes, Jalil Bennani, Abdessamad Dialmy, Fouad Laroui, Sana El Aji or Abdelfattah Kilito.

"We wanted to explore the importance of the other, of those who are different from us to show that this difference is fundamental in our society and that as long as we try to standardize behavior, cultural proposals ... we are impoverishing the world," explains Migayrou.

Always in this festival spirit, several concerts and musical readings are planned during this show in the Palace of the Italian Institutions. Rapper Muslim and singer Hamid Elhadri will ignite the palace scene on April 20, after a musical reading of Eric Reinhardt's "The Room of the Spouses" and Melodie Richard.

The next day, the evening will begin with a recital of poetry with Abdellatif Laâbi, followed by the concert of the mythical group Gnawa Diffusion. Finally, the classical music will close the show with the meeting of the Ukrainian pianist Nathalia Romanenko and the French writer Marek Halter who will tell the story of the fate of three women in Islam.

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Wednesday, April 04, 2018

Saturday - Jazz in Fez

This Saturday at the Hotel Sahrai the Majid Bekkas Quartet will give a concert of Afro Gnaoua jazz hosted by the Institut Français de Fès



The concert runs from 19:00 to 22:00 at the Hotel Sahrai, Bab Elghoul, 81611 Fez.

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Fez, Rabat and Tangier have Flights to Agadir

Air Arabia has announced the launch of a connection between Rabat and Agadir.  The company is also to include two flights from Tangier and Fez to Agadir under the partnership with the Regional Council Souss-Massa.



More than six months after the launch of its air base at Agadir-Al Massira airport, the company wants to link the resort to the capital. This is apparent from the convention that will be submitted to the study and approval of the members of the Regional Council Souss-Massa, at the special session scheduled for Thursday, exclusively dedicated to tourism. On the side of Air Arabia, the objective is also to include, in the framework of the partnership with the regional council, two other connections from Tangiers and Fez to develop domestic tourism. Meanwhile, the Regional Council Souss-Massa undertakes, under this convention, to inject 12 MDH per year for a period of three years, while the price of one way was set at 300 DH for the 80 first seats.

5 months after the launch of the Air Arabia Air Base at Agadir airport, the airline is programming 14 rotations per week to 7 European destinations. According to the management of the company, the filling rate recorded during the first months of the launch is satisfactory, being around 60%.

The low-cost air carrier has, among other things, engaged in promotional activities, particularly with the Scandinavian markets (Denmark and Sweden). One of these actions was the organisation of press trips and eductours, in addition to participation in fairs, including the Danish Travel Show. During this period, the company focused on targeting 60,000 visitors, including 4,000 tourism professionals from Denmark, Sweden and Norway. That said, it should also be remembered that the low-cost airline has transported nearly 45,000 passengers from Dublin, Manchester, Toulouse, Cologne, Munich, Stockholm and Copenhagen, 83% of which are tourists.

Air Arabia Web Site

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