We get to know Montpellier, and then we leave.

(Now that we are settled in Torino, we've found time to complete our final Montpellier Posting - here it is.)

As our stay in Montpellier came to an end, we found our temporary home town to be a vital thriving University city: clean, functional, and interesting. (Except there seems to be only one art museum.)

It has old things, although the young man in the tourist office apologetically told us we should visit Nimes, as Montpellier is only 1000 years old. We told him it was okay, San Francisco is around 160 years old. (We were counting from the Gold Rush, but the Spanish started a mission named for St. Francis in 1776, so we should'a said 235 years old.)

In Place de la Comedie is a fountain of the Three Graces, the Opera and other good looking older buildings

On a warm but breezy evening before dinner we explored the relatively new Antigone District, built from 1979 -1997. It's designed in a grand neo-classical way, blowing up classical motifs such as pediments, entablatures and pilasters to gigantic scale. The buildings consist mostly of low-income housing, public facilities and local shops.

The town seems to be mostly populated by the young with conspicuously few folks over 40, except in higher priced restaurants. There is a particular style of young men, whom we assume are the children and grandchildren of the huge influx of French Algerians in the late 60s after Algeria earned independence. They are lean with angular faces and very short cropped hair on the sides with a short central wave pushed up from the sides on top. No hip hop clothes for these guys, knee length shorts and pants are tight, mostly worn with tee shirts - a very homogeneous look (Paul much too shy to take a picture). The attitude is teenage sullen. It is strange, or maybe not, that these guys were rarely with girls, and in fact we saw very few girls or women of this ethnic group.

On our second Sunday we were strolling around town when we saw people walking into and out of an old building across from Saint Anne's church.

We went in and it was a courtyard art installation

Turns out there were such installations in lovely small spaces all over the old town. We grabbed a map and saw as many as we could in the hour before the exhibits closed.

We had been in the tourist office that day and there had been no mention of this exhibit. Strange since it seemed to be a big effort and was a lot of fun. There were families with kids interacting with the installations and there was a general good feeling as all the installations gave off a feeling of quiet joy.

Walking around Montpellier and environs Paul shot some photos that we are posting as memory joggers for us.

A new touch to an ancient house in St Guilhem

An architectural touch to a building in Montpelier. Apparently no one understands why it is there or if it has any function.

Montferrier roses

Montferrier view at dusk

Another Montferrier view at dusk

View of St Anne's from the top of Montpellier's Arch

Mitkah Bath in Montpellier's very old Synagogue

Gray hair Paul at a cafe we really liked

Montpellier night street scene

Danice having desert at Le Petit Jardin

Pizza Restaurant in Montpellier

Favorite Square in Montpellier

Danice waiting for her Dinner at Passe Compose

The best strawberries ever at home in Montferrier

Looking forward to meeting old/new friends for our Italy hiking adventure, but sad to be ending our wonderful 2 week home exchange, we headed on June 28th for the Montpellier Gare and our two day train trip to Verbania, Italy. Our next post will cover our hikes in the Italian Alps.