School on Wheels

In our second week in Morocco we were guided by the recommendations of our hosts. Pascal owner of the Jardin du Draa in Zagora...





... advised us to visit Fatima the owner of the fabulous Le Petite Riad in Ouarzazate.






Fatima recommended then La Perle du Dades in Boumalne where we met the owners Francoise and Jean Michel. They renovated an old Kasbah and created a little oasis...






at the south end of the Dades Valley.







Moreover both of them are wonderful hosts. On our very first night they invited us to their kitchen table. We met their friends, ate olives, salad de Moroccan and had a nice aperitif. We loved it.







The only issue was that none of the French spoke English or German. Thus we used our poor French skills and if needed we talked with our hands and feet. As we tried so hard they even invited us to take place at their dinner table with their friends – amongst them Pierrot a former professor 81 years old who lived in Kinshasa for several years.

The food was spectacular, the wine as well and we all enjoyed it very much. As we liked it very much we stayed 3 days instead of 1. During all those hours spent with their friends we found out that Francoise aka Fanfan and Jean- Michel worked as teachers with kids who had difficulties and took them with a 4x4 around Africa. It was important for them to get them out of their comfort zone and show them different perspectives so that they could start in France again. They did it for almost 15 years. It was a shame that we could not follow all their stories due to the lack of language skills. However what we understood was already fascinating enough. We wished, we had paid more attention to Madame Buhl / Monsieur Klein when we had had French in school. Fanfan and Jean-Michel have written a book about their experience with the kids in Africa. Of course you can find it on Amazon.com: L’école mobile.