Le Jardin aux Etoiles
Riad between Agadir and Taroudant, in southern Morocco
Holiday rental with a resident of Swiss nationality
 Unspoiled villageWith a mosque whose silhouette stands out against the horizon |  The Donkey and the ChildIn Moroccan society, the donkey is still a very precious asset, used for transportation |  Imoulass ValleyBeautiful landscapes |  EddirThe market takes place every Wednesday. It is 100% Berber |  Wednesday market in EddirYou can find local agricultural products there |  Donkeys among the argan treesWednesday parking in Eddir |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Terraced village near TamalouktBrick houses don't detract from the beauty of these places. But for how much longer ? |  SerenityFresh air and no pollution in the Atlas Mountains ! But beware of the arrival of modernity |  From the Souss plain to the Atlas MountainsHills dotted with argan trees |
Intact villages and authentic people of the Atlas
Meet authentic people and untouched landscapes in the nearby Atlas? It's not difficult, by car, from the Jardin aux Etoiles! We reach in a half hour to the nearest village, named Eddir.
Here, the car has not yet replaced the traditional means of transport
... and suddenly a car
Another traditional technique still in use in Eddir
Beautiful vegetables
Under the parasols
These goats have just been slaughtered and carry the message that their meat is very fresh
The meat on display thus attracts customers. The balance hasn't changed for centuries
It is a rural municipality with a small local administration
One of the many signs that make it impossible to confuse Berbers and Arabs
While the city of Ouled Teima nearby is mostly Arab, Eddir is totally Berber. It is imperative to go there on Wednesday morning, in order to take advantage of the atmosphere of the market which is held there that day.
At the entrance to the village, several dozen donkeys stand still, attached to the hundred-year-old argan trees. It is the sign of a large gathering, that of the inhabitants of the small surrounding douars, gathered for the occasion. Some come here to sell their goats or sheep, others stock up on vegetables and meat. Objects of all kinds are offered on the floor.
Warm welcome
Tourists are another attraction here. The foreign visitor is cordially welcomed, provided of course that he behaves with respect, which is the least of things. If you manage to get out a few words of tachelhit (Berber language), you will be immediately adopted! You may be invited to have a drink in very small improvised cafes, set up on the ground, sheltered by adobe walls and covered with reeds. We drink tea, we eat fried sardines. Here beats the heart of the real Amazigh Morocco.
Please note: the Eddir market is almost exclusively a meeting place for men, which may inconvenience Western women.
In floors
The dam is on the left
View from below
Dkhila Dam & Salt Pans
From Eddir, in 10 minutes by car, you can access a dam and salt pans named Dkhila. The dam extends in length, at the foot of an impressive stone cliff. For their part, the saltworks and their basins offer a nice sight to see.
Fatima in her kitchen, operating her argan oil production lathe
Surrounded by prickly pear cacti, now extinct
The road climbs above a magnificent landscape
The sky, the greenery, the fields
These stems can be transformed, for example, into shelters for vehicles, as in the Jardin aux Etoiles
Built of raw earth, that is to say rammed earth, and decorated with palm leaf motifs
Above Tamaloukt
It can be accessed from Tamaloukt, by crossing the wadi, which is sometimes filled with water
7 km from Tamaloukt
From Taroudant to Tafraouten, via Tamaloukt
Here is our third proposal to discover the intact villages and the authentic people of the nearby Atlas. Count an hour and a half to get there. From Taroudant, you have to head north, via Tamaloukt, a village located at the foot of this mythical chain. A good paved road of about thirty kilometers was opened from the town of Amcherk. From the first foothills of the mountain, dotted with argan trees, the spectacle of nature is king.
This road leads to the parent town of Tafraouten (not to be confused with Tafraout, locality located in the Anti-Atlas) and even further, in even wilder heights. The Imoulaas Valley (pictured in the carousel above) is well worth a visit. If you want to spend a night there: The Atlas Terraces.
Rammed earth and bricks
Some villages are not disfigured at all by the brick constructions. The traditional Berber houses in rammed earth, that is to say in raw earth, which constitutebest insulation and keep cool in summer, are still the rule, and should be protected. Because they are friable, and bad weather sometimes seriously damages them.
It therefore turns out to be simpler and more economical to build with industrial bricks. But these insulate neither from heat nor from cold and make the landscape ugly, since, in the countryside, they are almost never plastered.
Enriching encounters
An extraordinary peace emanates from these villages! At the edge of the road, kindly ask the inhabitants, Berbers in their overwhelming majority, and ask them if they allow you to discover their house.
They will be happy for your interest and will bring you to their very modest home. You might see the stay-at-home mom working the trick that getsArgan oil by crushing the kernels which are difficult to extract from the core of the fruit. If you're lucky - but don't we provoke it? -, the father will be proud to show you his offspring on the back of a donkey.
Despite the obstacles, serenity
This impromptu visit will allow you to better understand the difficulty of daily life in these Atlas villages and, despite all the obstacles, the optimism and serenity of their inhabitants. Rewarding encounters are within your reach!
Of course, leave a few tens of dirhams to the good people who have offered you their welcome and often their hearts.