Whaaaasup?

So what has been happening in Taroudant while we were away? Not very much. Jacques Chirac stayed at the Gazelle D'Or for Xmas and went to church with a lot of expats.  8.5 million euro has been given to bring potable drinking water to smaller communites in the province and the new minister for artisan crafts is the local boy from Ouled Teima. Most of the focus though appears to be on the lack of rain and its effect on agriculture and prices. It was used as the excuse for charging me 25Dh/kg for pears this morning and makes the news articles. I was surprised as most of the water is from barrages and melt water from the Atlas and altough the snow is less visible this year I am assured it is there above 1300m.
The other complaint is the lack of tourists. Apparently a number of flights into Agadir have been cut, particularly those from Italy and so  the number of tourists is less and the complaint is also that those that come spend less.  It is "la crise" which is to blame.
Nevertheless several of the stalls displaced from Place Tamoklate have moved to Place Assareg including a new "art" stall clearly aimed at tourists, and there were several tourists with cameras trying to snap the snakecharmer this morning. I just hope they all paid up.




The new art stall in Place Assareg



Elusive tourists try to snap the snakecharmer