Ideas for your free time
The main sights of El Jadida are packed into the small Cité Portugaise, and this is best explored on foot and with a camera. The Porte de la Mer is where boats used to unload their cargo into the fortified city, and the imposing, rounded bastions lapped by the Atlantic are very impressive. In the heart of the Cité Portugaise is the Portuguese Cistern, a vaulted chamber illuminated through a single opening in the roof and the atmospheric setting for a riot in Orson Welles’ filming of Othello, and the fortified city also boasts a (disused) synagogue, testament to the former thriving Jewish community here.
There are beaches in both directions from the town as well, busy in the summer but otherwise pretty empty; they are more for walking and sunbathing than swimming: large Atlantic rollers pound the shore most days.
A short distance north of El Jadida, Azemmour has stayed out of the spotlight, kept secret by the many artists who live here and visit, trying to capture the unique atmosphere of the town on canvass. On the banks of a river a short distance inland from the ocean, the medina is ringed with sturdy, ochre ramparts above which peep the white-washed houses, and below which lap the blue river waters. It’s an alluring combination.
