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Carpet Souk

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Marianne
Marianne
First Reviewer
4 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
1
Review
3
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The Carpet Souk

  • January 22, 2002
  • Rated 4 of 5 by Marianne from Eindhoven, Netherlands
The Carpet Souk

’Vous etes de France?’

’Non’.

La Grande Bretagnes? Belgique? now a whole catalogue of countries passes the review.

No, none of these, I answer.

Fifty metres further I turn round: I’m from Holland!’

He comes back, and walks besides us.
His act starts: ‘Then we are friends! My cousin, aunt, brother, (whatever he thinks of) lives in Holland’.

‘What a coincidence!’ I know the game.

‘He lives in Utrecht’. (or any other place name he knows)

‘Interesting’, is my response.

Now I’ll just see how long it takes him to bring me to his shop. That’s his aim. I like this game.


He starts talking about his friend or cousin and asks questions about Holland, which I answer duly.

’Would you like to see the mosque? From the top of the roof you will have a wonderful view of the souk.’

This is it. This is what I had been waiting for. He does not want to show me the mosque at all. He will now lead me to a carpet shop and tell me that this shop used to be a mosque.

Sometimes I give in quite soon, sometimes I take the mickey out of him. Invariably he doesn’t believe me when I say that I don’t buy.

Moroccan carpets come in different styles and techniques. Most carpets in this souk are typically Moroccan. Your friend will now offer you mint tea and slowly unroll carpets, one after another. This I never let happen, because I know I’m not buying.

’Pour le plaisir des yeux’, is now his adage. to please your eyes. It’s difficult to dissuade him from unrolling carpet after carpet. ‘This is hard work for you’, I tell him.

There goes another carpet. I show no interest lest he thinks I will buy after all.

PRACTICALITIES:You enter the souk at Rue Souk Marine.
You will pass the textile souk, the wool souk, then the loved or despised carpet souk.
Here you bear to the left to get to the dyers souk and the babouche souk. Babouche are the typically Moroccan slippers everyone is wearing. Then on to the carpenters and blacksmiths.
Now you are at the end of the souk, turn right, follow the path and you will return to where you started. You will now pass the leather and jewellers souk. And you are back at the carpet souk.

From journal Marrakesh: Djellaba and Jeans

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