Heaven is...

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Heaven is... fresh fish for Lunch.

... the endless hospitality of the couple who's guest house I am staying in, here in Essaouira. Their website is www.essaouiranet.com/dar-nafoura
tel 00212(0)44 47 28 55.



I wouldn't normally give a plug for the places I've laid my head, but their service has been exceptional.



Heaven is... the scenery in Essaouira, and if you are a surfing dude it's a great place to windsurf. Oh, and the food is excellent.



Having said that, its not a place to swim, as the rip tides are very strong.



The journey here was uneventful - I used the bus company Supratours. I found my guest house by just wandering around the Medina - it's a short walk from the bus stop.



It was 11 am in the morning - the front door was closed, so I knocked on the door. A man, who I know know is called Jacky, looked out of an upstairs window and shouted Bonjour. He let me in and showed me around the house, which is very well decorated.



He had very little English, so I was forced to use my not very good French. He offered me tea, and explained where everything was in the town with the aid of a map.



I have had a number of chats with both him and his partner Sylvie - they have made my stay here very agreeable. Sylvie speaks better English than Jackie. They are in fact French, from the region of Brittany. Apparently they visited Essaouira on holiday; after 2 days they decided to sell up everything in France and move. They couldn't afford rural Brittany, even if they wanted it, it's been bought up by the English Middle Classes and is far too expensive!



I have an interesting part of this journey soon - the long trip to Dakla and the Mauritian border across the Western Sahara.



POSTSCRIPT:
When I was thinking of the strap line for this post I had a song by the Talking Heads in my mind, from The Fear of Music album.

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