taroudant: My Grandmother went and bought....

Sunday, 27 February 2011

My Grandmother went and bought....

Sunday is market day. The market is north of the town where the standard walled market area houses the food market. To the north of this is and area selling mostly clothes and floorcoverings. Through the market you come to a smaller area described by the Rough Guide as a flea market but selling what beloved described as "a scrapyard of wasted metal which no-one could possibly want to buy". This from a man who hoards "useful pieces of string" and bits of wire which "may come in useful". Through this you come to the wholesale vegetable market with huge mounds of carrots or onions or gourds. There is also the beast market; mostly sheep and goats, but I did see cattle. This was interesting as though I drink lots of milk and eat beef which is cheaper than lamb, I had only previously seen about a dozen cows in five years worth of visits. Circling back to the vegetable market you pass through an area of tented cafes selling tea and fried fish to the stallholders.
It is light here about 7.00 by 8.00 the wholesale and beastmarkets are in full swing and the fish fryers are just staring up trade. The vegetable market is still partly setting up. If you go into town it is dead the shopkeepers and stallholders there not getting going until about 10.00, but later in the day the town comes alive with many more street traders than a weekday. The Sunday market is basically for small farmers from all over the Souss and this part of the Atlas to sell their produce. They will have left their villages well before dawn and need to sell before they can buy which accounts for the timetable and the need for a fish breakfast.