Have you ever been swept off your feet unexpectedly…by a place?

I’m head over heels with Morocco after returning from a travel advisor-only familiarization trip . When people ask, “What was your favorite thing about Morocco?” I stumble, never being able to identify one winning anything in life. Instead, I share a moment that captures why travel feeds the soul.

fez medina

In Fez, our group wandered the medina with our incredible guide, Chakib. The alleyways were impossibly narrow - some dating back to the 9th century - and lined with weathered wooden doors, holding centuries of stories.

two bread loaves

In one quiet stretch, a tiny door creaked open. An elderly woman appeared, just as startled by us as we were by her and quickly disappeared back inside. Moments later, she returned with a wooden board covered by cloth, revealing two round loaves of unbaked bread. She set it on the threshold and retreated, leaving the door slightly ajar.

A man passed, called to her in Arabic, then kept walking. A second man stopped and exchanged a few words, pointing vigorously in one direction. She came to the door, looked in that direction and nodded in agreement. The man hoisted the bread board onto his shoulder and carried it down the alley towards the direction he pointed.
Chakib explained: many homes in the medina don’t have ovens. Women prepare dough each morning and leave it outside their doors, trusting that a passerby will deliver it to the communal bakery. The first man wasn’t headed that way, but the second was so he became the bread courier. Later that day, someone would return the bread to the home or it would be retrieved by a family member.

COMMUNAL BAKERY

In Casablanca, we visited one of these bakeries: the baker working the flames with practiced ease, shelves stacked with loaves waiting for their owners to return.

That simple exchange in Fez has stayed with me. What is everyday life for them was extraordinary to me. It revealed community, generosity, and trust all in one gesture.

And that’s the beauty of travel: the big memories often come from the smallest details.

FUN FACT

“Our cooking class teachers explained that cous cous became a bread substitute because historically on Fridays, men pray in mosques. They aren’t available to carry the loaves to and from the communal bakery. Resourceful women solved this logistical challenge by combining semolina flour with olive oil and massaging it gently by hand to create fluffy cous cous. Women were able to steam the cous cous on their wood-fired tagines at home thus eliminating the bread baking on those days. ”

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