One of the highlights of your stay in Fez will be for sure the infamous Fez Tanneries. If Morocco is famous for its leather goods, it owes its reputation to the young men who work in tanneries like this one, using the same methods today that were used centuries before. The secret ingredients for a perfect dying are quite evident once you smell a peculiar perfume in the air. While most of the bazaars will provide you with some mint to avoid the smell, Gatsby always prefers its own handkerchief with some drops of Serge Lutens 'cedre'.
There are many tanneries in Fez, but the most famous are the ones located near the Karaouine mosque, the chouara tanneurs. They are really impressing and make a very good photo, so good in fact that Gatsby once used it as a setting for a catalogue of a well known spanish fashion brand.
From above the view of the men stamping the skins in the circles of color, or spreading out the vivid, yellow saffron dye, is fascinating. A walk at ground level will be something quite different altogether as you come face to face with knife wielding workers softening the leather and get a whole new perspective on hard work.
Visitors can climb to any one of the terraces belonging to the surrounding leather shops that look down on the tanners' yard, honeycombed with vats of dye and piled with skins.
Afterwards you can visit any number of leather shops and see for yourself the product of such hard work, and you'll be smoothly invited to buy, and maybe you should, because the quality of the products is often excellent and a real bargain.
