Fes: If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

On a short tour around Fes one of my guides summed the city up as having a 9th century Medina, 11th century gate, and 19th century “new town” (from the French). Walking through much of Fes and its outlaying towns you get a sense that the 21st century has indeed arrived yet there’s no hurry to change too much. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Everywhere cars, motorbikes, and four-legged animals co-exist as people go on about their lives. I have seen everything from food to furniture to Coke bottles to gasoline cans being delivered via donkey backs. If only I could have seen a UPS guy hop off a mule instead of a brown truck it would have made my day.

Speaking of Coke, remember the dinner that I posted about yesterday? I was really craving something fizzy like a soda on my way back to the riad. But before I could spot any Coke at the convenience stands, I get swept up in a wedding celebration…

About ten minutes into it, the procession pulls to a stop, in front of a store. A cheery man comes out and tells me this is just a prelude to the big wedding tomorrow. It is his cousin’s wedding and he invites me to come back the next day and attend the real deal. While we chat, one of the revelers offers to let me take a picture of his lantern, captured in one of my photos.

Unfortunately I don’t make it to the wedding but instead happen along a funeral procession the morning after outside of the Medina gates, by the Jewish cemetery, while I’m visiting the ramparts which I’ll show you in another entry. As I sit there lost in thoughts, I see a solitary man riding a donkey, easily navigating the steep slopes of the cemetery.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. 

01/05/2026