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.

Cities Around Montpellier

We've taken the mighty Mini on several trips to visit other cities in southern France.

Carcassonne is second to Paris in terms off most visited city, so we drove 2 hours to see what's up. It sits on a strategic hill site, a protective fortress that has been inhabited since 3500BC. The Romans moved in around 100 AD, to build much fortification, but the fortress was thoroughly restored in 1853 by the theorist and architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc based on his fantasies of medieval architecture and was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997. It was a hot day for the uphill climb and the city was maybe not packed but buzzing with tourists such as ourselves, so we had lunch and checked out the cathedral,

but the main attraction a tour of the Chateau was closed due to a strike.

So we saw what we could, and headed back home.

For us, probably not worth 4 hours driving.

We also enjoyed a late afternoon trip to the strip of beaches on a sand bar south west of Montpellier, finding this somewhat deserted beach, Piage du Digue, that still provided a restroom and bar. Paul loved reading in the warm breeze for a couple of hours.

Then we headed further west along the sand bar and found a nice small port town Marseillan, where we decided to have a fresh seafood dinner before the drive home.

We had visited Arles and Aix en Provence on prior trips, but we had never made it to Marseilles, so it must be time. Marseilles is a large port city. The trip from the west through the Carmargue region, then swooping down into the port area, with vistas of large ships and the Mediterranean, while staying high above the industry is most delightful. We found a parking lot with more than our average adeptness, but made the triple mistake of arriving without a map, hungry and in need of a restroom. Paul spied the tourist office where maps were freely given but they suggested a local department store for a restroom. Instead we set out in search of Bouillabaisse, but the restaurants were just too waterfront touristy for Paul so we backtracked to centre ville and up a hill about a mile to where the locals eat. We found a nice outdoor table there: friendly, good food (veal and lamb, no Bouillabaisse), a small carafe of Rose, and a pleasant restroom; all was right and well with our little world again.

After lunch and a bit of walking around pleasant streets, we figured out their tram system (not as user friendly as Montpellier's) and trammed it up to climb the Palais Longchamps.

Then back down via tram to the oldest part of town near the port, but aside from this vast church we didn't really find any great old buildings. This is the Cathedral Major, and from the back it seemed large enough to hold at least 4 normal Cathedrals.

After the Cathedral we roamed around the old town. It seems to be mostly a working class district with nothing all that interesting to see, in at least our short time there. But nonetheless Paul has a few pics:

Since we had this lovely view of it, and we've both had cataract surgery, we decided we could do without the little train ride to visit Notre Dame De La Garde, one of the major tourist sites in Marseilles.

Only slightly related - a note on Why It's Not Easy Visiting Large Cities (but we knew that....)

It was nearing 5:00PM, so we headed back to the car park and drove around underground for a good 10 minutes in search of the exit going our direction. Fortunately our nifty air conditioning and a Miles Davis CD kept us cool throughout. Finally we surfaced, but the main road in and out to our A-55 was blocked by a film crew, so we followed the "Diversion" signs and got lost, but then found, and then along with many other cars ended up behind a woman parked in the one outgoing lane, loading her car from a nearby store with many many small items, one at a time. We have seen that the French are patient and courteous, so we chilled... a while... but after 5 minutes and a huge line of cars behind us we were declaring the situation to be ridiculous. After a few more minutes a saintly oncoming driver stopped to let our string of cars go around her. She seemed unscathed and may have continued for another half hour blocking the one lane street to the Autoroute.

As we finally got onto the A-55 and headed west, we realized how lucky we had been coming into Marseille before the film crew had taken over the main street. Cars were backed up for about 3 km to get into town, and then after another 10 km we saw an accident with another long backup, perhaps 1-2 Km. There are few exits to the A- freeways, so those poor folks were probably stuck in their cars for many hours. Limited access high speed roads are among the many things that are so great when they work, and so dreadful when they don't.

Gorgeous Gorges

We set out one day for what could have been a long drive to see a couple of southern France's famous Gorges, but thanks to the A-9 and A-65, we were at the starting point within 90 minutes. First we paused at a view point near Millau, which gives a great view of the Millau Viaduct, allegedly the tallest longest (2km) viaduct in the world.

Millau sits at the convergence of the Tarn and Dourbie rivers, and at the base of their two beautiful Gorges.

Although it was nigh 1:00 pm and normally our lunch time, we were fortified with fresh local cherries and apricots, so we proceeded northeast up the long and beautiful Tarn Gorge

in search of the perfect local French restaurant overlooking the Tarn river. This beautiful Gorge has just enough space near the river for a road, an occasional village , and quite a few canoe or camping concessions.

First was a stop at a little village across the river, La Cresse for a picture of what looks like a renovated and scrubbed ancient house

and one in what appears to be left to nature over the centuries,

both built from stones from the Gorge. Even the roofs are thin layers of stone. We drove all through the village, but no sign of a restaurant or even a bar, so we consulted a map and pressed onward.

Then we found a nice restaurant in Riviere-sur-Tarn, serving a 12E menu lunch for Paul of salade, Pintaud (guinea hen) with scalloped potatoes and a desert of Cherry Clafoutti (not as good as Danice's, but tasty none the less). Danice had a Salade Roquefort with more local blue cheese than she had imagined possible and helped Paul with his desert, as is her way. Alas the restaurant was not on the river side of the road, but they did provide tables with umbrellas and a breeze overlooking a pleasant town park, and a friendly waitress who spoke "a little" English, which was just enough.

Off again, stopping at an ancient Chateau de Peyrelade, climbing all over which made for great exercise after a big meal. It was built at least as far back as the 12th century,

and was the scene of incessant battles and sieges until 1633 when it was dismantled on the orders of Richelieu, the chief minister under King Louis XIII's.

Further down the beautiful Tarn Gorge, huge granite walls towering above on either side, we spied another picturesque village across the river, La Sabliere. There are a number of these hundreds of years old villages that are just too great looking in the gorge settings. We love to think of the lives of the people who lived there over the centuries.

It was such a perfect summer day, warm but not too hot, I took a picture of Paul to remind him how it felt when we're back in San Francisco in the August cold.

We had thought of staying overnight in a scenic hotel in Sainte Enimie, but when we arrived it was only 5:00PM, over 4 1/2 hours of daylight to go, and the town seemed overcome by tourist attractions, so we crossed the river and headed up the switchbacks to the top of the deep Tarn Gorge. We drove southwest across a beautiful plateau, then down a steep road into the Gorge de la Jonte,

(Paul thought it was cute seeing the rock walls high on the gorge through this bizarre rock.)

which we followed until its convergence with the Tarn River, then across the convergence and up up again to another plateau, descending again near Millau where the Jonte joins the Dourbie River very near where we had left the A-65 before lunch.

Only 90 minutes from there to our home, where at 9:00PM Paul created in 10 minutes a delightful meal of Fish Soup from a jar, fresh bread, salad and great cheeses. We unintentionally saved so much on a nice dinner and hotel by driving home instead of staying in the Gorges that we planned to go to a very good Montpellier restaurant the next day. However, the next day, we called the restaurant of choice and listening to the cordial French message, couldn't figure out how to leave a request for a reservation.... ignorance is rarely bliss. We sent an email to their website contact information, but have had no response. It's good that Paul is so adept at using local ingredients. We are eating well, but no great French cuisine.

Flash! We called again today during their lunch service and were able to speak to a kind Frenchman in a little English, a little French. We are now certain that we likely have a reservation for Saturday night. We hope we will have at least one meal of expert French cuisine. We plan to drive to Marseille tomorrow and will also see what foods we find there, sans reservation. If all this sounds as self-indulgent to you as it does to us, well..... it is!