March - April 2012....Play Time

Well Finn,

Obviously you’ll have worked out the sense within the phrase “All Work and no play, makes jack a dull boy!” We may not be the best examples of this and in retrospect, perhaps many of the issues we have today relate to the sheer intensity and impact of working so relentlessly for four years, with very little break.

But now we are trying to make the most of our time. It’s difficult as TBH even with the end of the chantier, completing the finishing of Dar Finn and learning about and nuancing our marketing strategy, has been pretty consuming. But my god it’s a hell of an improvement on having a building site filled with the madness of multiple mwalem.

Now everyone needs time out, big and small, and this has been the start of your holidays from school. We try to organise things for you and us to do, but actually Fez really isn’t too child friendly and frequently, time off from school is also when people go home, wherever that may be. 

Added to that, invariably there are differences in the times of yours and your other friends holidays. We’ll eventually get better at your holidays and when the weather improves, maybe we’ll be able to go camping.  I hope so.

But of course there are other ways of letting off steam. One of these is sport, which I must admit I’m not excelling in as yet, but I’ve got my eye on my bike and with summer will come the chance of swimming.

However what Fez does do very well is…party. Both our friends and the palatial nature of even the smallest house here, yet alone the larger and more stunning riads, make amazing locations for a party.  

Thus when Dominic called for a fancy dress party around the theme of 1,001 nights, we gladly engaged with the concept. Now parties are like people. Some people enjoy the opportunity to chat with friends and other people like to ……well let’s just say, cut loose. Each to their own, but typically, it was a great event.

Of course another great opportunity is to mix adults and young people in partying and my hand goes up to Vincent and Vanessa for hosting a Easter Egg Hunt for Easter Sunday. 

What a success it was. We all brought dishes, Vincent managed an amazing home made BBQ , built from an old oil drum, (which could be a very useful addition to our house, Dar Finn or even Tours Around Fez) and Vanessa organised the fun and games for kids and adults alike

 

Again, I have to say, what a great event. It’s at times like these, when we all get together and just hangout, making the most of the places that we live in and have access to, by the sheer nature of living in Fez and Morocco, that we all get to relax a bit and appreciate how lucky we are, and how lovely our friends here are. 

  

Thanks guys xxxx

March - April 2012 Fez at Night....A new Product for Tours Around Fez, or a New Dawn for Dar Finn?

Morning Finn,

Actually I’ve no idea when you’ll be reading this and in fact I’m writing this in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, though more about that later…probably in another blog entry.

We had a couple from Barcelona who stayed at Dar Finn and Greg is a photographer. He’d been taking some quite lovely shots around town and I voiced the opportunity for us to take a walk around Fez late at night when the streets are empty and the light transforms the medina with a golden hue.

If I’m honest the more I thought of it, the more I regretted making the offer. Generally I only walk the evening streets after a night out, sometimes a little the worse for wear. It’s always beautiful, I always feel relatively safe and I almost always wonder why I haven’t taken my camera out to capture it. But wondering round the night time streets to or from a friends house on my own and taking a tourist with me are quite different things and suddenly the chance of it all going wrong, us getting lost at best or mugged at worst, seeped in to my anxieties.

 

 Of course I couldn’t have been more wrong. The streets were evocative and everyone we met was amazingly friendly. It gave a real opportunity to simply stop and talk with people whether it was this pigeon keeper, who invited us (yes that’s you and me) to his house for pigeon pastille, or and to see the medina in a way any of us rarely do. It was beautiful, evocative and more or less empty.

  

Of course there were times when it felt a bit risqué, mostly though because it was something of a first, but also because some of the streets I’m less used to, notably in R’Cif, change so dramatically at night when so many shops are closed. What it did show, which Greg emphasised was that it could be a very viable tour. I’ve been thinking of developing something additional for TAF (www.toursaroundfez.com ) and this could be perfect.

 

In fact, on that, whilst here I’ve been thinking about what to develop when I get back. The thing is that to expand the marketing and product design/identity of Dar Finn requires time and attention, which I won’t be able to give it if I return to start up Xaouen immediately this consultancy ends, even if that would be my preference. In addition to that we have a massive opportunity with TAF, given that it is currently a unique product in Fez and we are in the Lonely Planet. It would be a real miss not to build on this.

On top of that, having spent so much time away from you this year already and with some more to come in June, it simply feels too much, moving over to focus on Xaouen, which would demand at least 3 days a week away. 

So I am thinking of focussing on marketing Dar Finn and managing Tours Around Fez and seeing where we are come the winter when, though it will be colder, it will be a good time to landscape the farm as well as giving me the time to really research what, how and with whom I am going to develop the project. Don’t get me wrong Finn, it still excites me more than anything, but the logic is there.

March 2012 Putting the Finishing Touches to Dar Finn, Boutique Riad, Fez Morocco!

Hi again Finn,

It seemed to take an age to get back to Fez and again I’d been away from you, it felt, for too long.  The end of the building has brought another challenge to us. There is of course the “final finishing”, which is especially the case in the “lounge” and garden areas, but also completing soft furnishings, tables, sofas and wall decorations.

It also meant that we had to complete our website and begin a marketing strategy. As you’ll know, we had tried working with Omar without success and finally we asked Sarah to come over and put her professional photographic skills to the test at Dar Finn. Beccie organised the show, I did the narrative and Sarah took and edited the images. A team effort. The result has been impressive, have a look for yourself. (www.DarFinn.com)

In side Dar Finn, with money running out and a time lag in people making bookings,  we’ve been using our resources as efficiently as possible. This means exchanging nights at the hotel for services, with Sarah and Josh (websites) in the development of the website and using windows to make new tables.

We’ve decided to call the names after Babs/Gates in the medina, as a means of publicising and orienting guests. This window came from a room called Rcif (aka Pashas suite).Having cut it out to access the balcony, we talked to a metal mwalem to make it in to a convertible table. The idea is that the leg frame of the table top has two levels of fittings, so that it can either be used as a dining or a lounge table. Here they are, with our glazier putting the final touches in the dining room.

 

Of course we also need to move things like this and bags through the house so we’ve put in a jerara to haul everything up through the garden or through the courtyard, without using the stairs and bashing the plaster/tadlakt on the walls. This isn’t perfect yet, but we’ll get there!

What is nice to see is the slow but steady finishing of the garden. We’ve added, seats,  plants, zuaked iron railings, for climbing plants, and a few pieces of West African art. The pool has now been filed and we’re preparing other seating. This has meant designing chairs, repairing sofas that we bought and drove up from marrakesh and building in traditional seating for the lounge. 

As ever all these things need to be designed, materials locally sourced and made by local artisans. For the lounge sofas, it meant bringing in specialists who use recycled clothes to fill sofa cushions. With all this work, the garden and lounge are showing their potential. They’re lovely places…hopefully other people will think so too.

As we develop our marketing strategy we also need to gain a clearer understanding of our identity…what is Dar Finn? Obviously we want to create an environment that is fun, cool, funky and relaxing. But we also want to engage people in our and their interests. Thus we are focussing on music, food, culture and travel, I’ve said so many times that one of the things I love about Fez and Morocco as a whole, are these things and the food is simply wonderful.

It’s currently strawberry season and we’ve been making the most of this. Mummy is a genius at cake making and we’ve been making pots and pots of jam. We’ve also cured some wild boar and made our own tomato ketchup. You’ve got to love it.

It’s not always so easy to be open about what we want to promote in Dar Finn, local sensitivities have to be considered. Mohammed’s been very generous in sharing his bed space to clandestinely store our wine stock. But I look forward to being more public with and posting our recipes….we’ll be thinking of all sorts of ways to develop our marketing strategy…you’ve obviously got your own opinions and methodologies! Thanks for that Mr Finn of Dar Finn, Boutique Riad in Fez Medina!.