Streets squares and districts to visit Morocco

Maarif is the shopping area that women and girls love to walk around the weekend to shop for. We discover the popular facet of this ancient Italian quarter by Normandy street, where a succession of streets lined with jewellery, perfume shops, clothes and women's lingerie. This is also the case of bouis-bouis of pleasant neighbourhoods and good business. For the luxury signs and a European fashion, we will head on the other side, towards Al Massira Boulevard where international franchises are located such as Zara, Benetton at No. 24, Miss Sixty, at No. 7. It is also on this axis of the Twin Center. These famous twin towers, in order to orient themselves in the city, have a bar on the top floor where you have fabulous panoramic views over Casablanca. At the height of Zara, you can also reach El Messaoudi street, which houses a Levis store and other ready-to-wear stalls. It is located next to the Plaza d'Iris square, ideal for a coffee break between two shopping sessions. On weekends, Maarif is the fief, living and friendly, of cinema and relaxed women.

The remains of the wall erected by the Merinids dynasty separate the medina from the new city. You will enter the old city through one of the two monumental gates, including Bab Sidi Abdelouahab (the Head Gate), on which the Pasha used to display the heads of the beheaded rebels! You will then pass in front of the hammam El Bali, the oldest in the city and the most famous among the inhabitants. It preserves a beautiful Andalusian architecture. Near El-Attarine Square, stand the emblematic monuments of the old city: the three fountains with their colourful mosaics, the Great Mosque, built in 1298 on the orders of Sultan Yacoub Yussuf and the very beautiful medersa, built in 1335 in the tradition of Arab-Moorish architecture. To the north of the square, you can stroll through the kissaria (covered market), where cloth merchants meet carpet and clothing vendors and for some shopping for gold and silver jewelry, go to rue El-Mazouzi: rue des bijoutiers. Every Thursday, the great souk of Oujda is held in the medina near Bab Sidi Abdelouahab. In the east, Bab Al Gharbi is home to the oldest school in Morocco created by the French at the beginning of the 20th century. The former Algerian president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was born in Oujda, is said to have spent his youth there. There is also an old hammam, Hammam Ejjjarda, dating from the 19th century and decorated in the Turkish style. At the exit of the medina, do not miss the superb Dar Sebti palace.

The square was the administrative heart of the French city during the protectorate period. In the centre of it once stood the equestrian statue of Marshal Lyautey. It was unrolled in 1956, on Independence Day, to be placed in front of the French consulate where it is still located today. Its administrative buildings in the neo-Moorish style combine all the elements of traditional Moroccan arts with the functional characteristics of European architecture: zellige, ironwork, marble... They give this square a beautiful architectural unity and frame a square where men rest and chat at any time of the day, in the shade of the ficus trees.