Never Leave Home Without A Map

Oct 5, 2005

Stacey and I started this trip in a Borders bookstore in Los Angeles - we were preparing for our French trip with guidebooks and maps. Maps, obviously, are important for a car trip abroard. The French roads are wonderful: well maintained, signposted to the max, many planted with trees on both sides that stretch off into the distance. But without a map to plan the way ahead you are totally lost. We bought a Michellin map of all of France. We quickly found out that we needed much more detail of the particular area to which we were headed -- Montpellier. Signs led the way, but then what?

It was late, after seven, when we hit France's seventh largest city. Seven is rush hour in France as stores close from 12 to 2 and then reopen until 7 or so. The roads were filled with speeding traffic that pushed us along...no chance to slow down and take a look at where we were headed as we pushed ahead, on to this highway then off here, then on to another. A sign said "Montpellier Mediteranee", and I knew we had been in town and were now heading out of town to the shore area (Montpellier is not on the Mediterannean but several miles inland on the Lez River). I pulled off the road and into a shopping center. What to do? We didn't even have the address of the B&B where we would be staying - just a phone number. So we called - no answer. How could that be? Our hostess was expecting us tonight and she's not home. I left a message and we waited. Soon the phone rang and I tried to explain where we were but Micky couldn't place the location. So I took my cell phone to a security guard who was directing traffic in the parking lot and a long discussion ensued, in French, between the guard and our hostess. After all that, however, she still could not really place our location. She suggested that we make our way to the airport and she would meet us there. That sounded crazy to me, the guy knows his way, blindfolded, around Brooklyn and the rest of NY city. So I persuaded her to give us general directions to any place near her house. Micky said we should follow signs to the Hospiteau Faculte. She lives near the university and that's a central neighborhood that many road signs point to. And it worked! After another half an hour we called back to give her more familiar landmarks and Micky came to meet us and guide us to her house that would be our home for the next few days in Montpellier.


The lovely house in Montpellier that was to be our base for the next few days.


Stacey and our hostess, Micky, on the back terrace of her home.


Micky's place is a lovely and sprawling house with several levels, a quiet back yard with a pool. It's nice to sit and feel the warm Mediterranean sunlight on your face.

It was very late and we were too tired to start investigating the city and find a place to eat. Micky graciously invited us to join her for dinner. A chicken had already been cooked and it was served with lots of little green peas, some wine and bread. This act of generosity, we found over the next few days, was repeated over and over and we couldn't have wished for a better place or more a more lovely host than we had discovered here on Rue de Paul Parguel in the city of Montpellier.

Our "home" was in a wing of Micky's house - we had our own entry, two bedrooms with big beds and shared a bathroom with Lynn and Mike. Each bedroom opened onto the backyard and the pool (which we never used - the week before we arrived it "had been like summer," according to Micky. But this week Autumn had settled in. Still it hovered, very pleasantly, around 70 or so which was perfect for exploring the town).


Hanging out in the backyard.


Our bedroom with a door to the yard.

We slept well and upped early for our first look at the town of Montpellier. Here's what Frommer's has to say about this southern city:

758km (471 miles) SW of Paris; 161km (100 miles) NW of Marseille; 50km (31 miles) SW of Nîmes

The capital of Mediterranean (or Lower) Languedoc, this ancient university city is still renowned for its medical school, founded in the 13th century. Nostradamus qualified as a doctor here, and even Rabelais studied at the school. Petrarch came to Montpellier in 1317 and stayed for 7 years.

Today Montpellier is a bustling metropolis, one of southern France's fastest-growing cities, thanks to an influx of new immigrants. Except for some dreary suburbs, the city has a handsomely laid-out core, with tree-flanked promenades, broad avenues, and historic monuments. Students are about a quarter of the population, giving the city a lively, animated aura. In recent years, many high-tech corporations, including IBM, have settled in Montpellier.

Micky gave us instructions on how to use the mass transit system. Montpellier is said to be a very progressive town (from the city-planning point of view). A new tram (trolley) has been built and bicycles are in heavy use and encouraged with a system of bike paths. It's a university town with a famous medical school and, thus, is crawling with students. Mike remarked that it sometimes seems like a giant campus because of the number of young people in its streets.

The tram took us downtown to the heart of the old town: the Place de la Comedie, a beautiful square, surrounded by spectacular old buildings including the old opera house and a lovely, old fountain.


Place de la Comedie in Montpellier, France.


Montpellierians going about their business.


Lynn and Mike in the Place de la Comedie, Moulins, France.


The squares in French cities are one of my favorite things - each beautiful in its own right.

Adjacent to the Place de la Comedie is the be-flowered Esplanade de Charles De Gaulle, a promenade with tall London Planes that sheltered you from the hot southern sun. It's a place to stroll or sit and watch people walk by.


The Esplanade Charles de Gaulle in Montpellier.

From the Esplanade we entered the old town with its narrow and ancient streets. The French recycle their old buildings instead of tearing them down (as we have often done in the states). Then the "new" city grows up outside the old and the old is, therefore, beautifully preserved. Shops are installed in ground level of the old buildings and it's a joy to wander endlessly through this street and that until tiredness or hugner set in. That's the time to head for any one of the hundreds of cafes that you can find just about anywhere: in a place or even, unexpectedly, down some narrow alley. Fabulous!


This is a semi-tropical city - summer lasts till the end of October and palms grow everywhere.

The wider streets are filled with gorgeous hotels (mansions) from the 17th century when Montpellier had a renaissance after a period of decline.


Beautiful old buildings and plams in Montpellier.


Cafe's everywhere.

Lynn wanted a French haircut and had been searching since Paris for a place to have it done. She finally found a place with the right price and feel in a narrow street in Montpellier. We left her on her own as we continued our walk. And, ooh la la, it came out great!


Lynn's new French haircut. Not bad, ay?


Lots of students in Montpellier - result?? Beer bottle on a statue's head.


This fountain's lion looks worried that moss is growing all around him.

We ended our walk with a stroll out to the old aqueduct that had once delivered water to the city from the remote mountains. Surrounded by royal gardens, it offered a fabulous view of the surrounding city from up on high.


The old aqueduct that brought water to the medieval city.


The mountains in the distance to the north.

......

....more Montpellier and beyond in tomorrow's post.