All the stallholders urged us to pick and taste, so we gorged on fruit, nuts and raisins as sweet as dessert wine. We then moved on to sample glistening piles of olives in pinks and greys, as well as the usual green and black.

On pointing to a traffic-light-coloured pile of greens, flecked with fiery red harissa, the local curry paste, and chunks of pickled lemons, a boy scooped piles into a large plastic jar, then bound it with duct tape to seal it for the journey home. I later discovered that I’d bought a kilo for less than £1.50.

Arriving at Feta’s, it soon became clear that his four sisters were doing the cooking and as guests we were expected to stay out of the kitchen. Hearing that the feast would take at least three hours to prepare we headed back to the medina for more tastings, this time in the honey souk, where we spent ages discussing the differing merits of cedar wood, lavender and mille fleurs.

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea before lunch, but Mo Mo steered us through the twisting alleys to come out at the city tanneries, a Fez institution for six centuries and its most astounding tourist attraction. We clutched bunches of fresh mint to our noses, thoughtfully provided for delicate foreigners, in an attempt to quell the unbelievable stench of rotting hides.

Ten thousand poor wretches still work in the tanneries, as near as anything ever comes to a living vision of hell. Many of them are young semi-naked men who pound the hides in stone vats with their feet. Their bodies are stained red or indigo by the dyes, and the pong comes from the animal urine used to cure the skins, a method unchanged since medieval times. It was a reminder to us middle-aged travellers that those smelly goatskin Afghan coats we all wore in the 1970s were trod just like this.

We stood amazed, looking at each other, almost fearing to open our mouths, until we burst into fits of giggles when the joker in our group shouted: “Ooh-er, hideous stinky!”

NEED TO KNOW

Getting there: Jill Hartley travelled with Abercrombie & Kent (0845 0700612, www. abercrombiekent.co.uk) which offers three nights’ B&B at Riad Fes from £680pp including flights with Royal Air Maroc via Casablanca.

New route: British Airways (0870 8509850, www.ba.com), will fly to Fez twice weekly from Nov 2. Return flights from £170.

Reading: Morocco (Lonely Planet, £14).

Further information: Moroccan National Tourist. Office (020-7437 0073, www.visitmorocco.com).

Page 2: Morocco on Screen

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