Description

On our 1 Day trip to Ifran from Fes, we will visit beautiful villages and witness the traditional lives of Berber families. Catch some stunning views, meet some monkeys, and learn about Moroccan culture!

After breakfast at 08:00 am, we drive to Ifrane: The modern town of Ifrane was established by the French administration in 1929 on land expropriated from the inhabitants of the zâwiya. The town was to be a “hill station,” a cool place for colonial families to spend the hot summer months, and it was initially planned according to the “garden city” model of urban design then in vogue. The plan called for chalet-type summer homes in the Alpine style, laid out among gardens and curving tree-lined streets. A royal palace was also built for Sultan Muhammad b. Yûsuf. The town’s first public buildings consisted of a post office and a church. Moreover, a penitentiary was built which served as a POW camp during World War II.

As elsewhere in Morocco, a shantytown called Timdiqîn soon grew up next to the colonial establishment. It housed the Moroccan population (maids, gardeners, etc.) that serviced the French vacationers. Timdiqîn was separated from the colonial garden city by a deep ravine. After independence, the French properties in the original garden city were slowly bought up by Moroccans. The town was enlarged and endowed with a mosque, a municipal market and public housing estates. Furthermore, the shanty neighborhood of Timdiqîn was rebuilt with proper civic amenities. In the afternoon, we drive back to Fes