Montpellier saves the day

After enjoying our time in Spain so much, we had to make sure the vacation ended nicely.

The long drive home was looming ahead, and we didn’t want that to be the last thing we remembered about our vacation, so we scheduled a brief stop in Montpellier, France – described as the most desirable city in Provincial France, and conveniently located about  half-way to Zurich from the Costa Blanca, it seemed like the perfect pick.

After a somewhat eventful night at the hotel we were booked into (which I can say with certainty we will never ever go back or even close to), we were really tempted to just get in the car and drive home.

But I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to visit Montpellier, albeit briefly – nor the opportunity to visit Sephora after being deprived of it for so long – and I knew that a walk and a bit of a look-around in a pretty place would help us recharge a bit for the 7-hour drive ahead of us, so I convinced  my family to take the morning to shop and explore a little.

After a brief stop at the Odyseeum – the new shopping, dining and entertainment center just outside Montpellier – for breakfast at Pain & Cie and to pop into Sephora, we headed to the focus point of Montpellier: Place de la Comédie.

A long square ending with the Montellier opera house (Opera Comédie) and sided by lovely baroque buildings, Place de la Comédie was also hosting a large market that day, and rows of stands selling clothes, accessories, knick knacks and local specialties stretched the whole length of the square.

It was hot, so the girls took advantage of the fact that I had stopped to take pictures to dip their hands in the cool water of the Les Trois Graces fountain, which stood in an unusual position: not in the middle of the square, nor at either end; just a short distance from the Opera Comédie, but not right in front of it, either. This position, that is part of what makes the square asymmetrical when seen from above, is very unusual in city squares in the old countries of Europe. It’s details like this that betray the fact that Montpellier is a young city by Old Continent standards: it was founded in the Middle Ages when a local Count joined together two hamlets and fortified it with a wall.

Unusual as it is, it’s still pretty lovely:

Resisting the temptation to sit at one of the cafés that had tables right on the square and spend the rest of the morning sipping cappuccino and people-watching, we headed up the Rue de la Loge, passing the Préfecture de l’Herault and walking down the beautiful Rue Foch, with its 19th century buildings and neoclassical courthouse, to the Porte du Peyrou, the local Arc de Triomphe.

It was getting close to lunch time and my husband, the (self-)designated driver for the length of the trip, was anxious to get on the road. But as we closed in on the Porte du Peyrou I could see the Promenade du Peyrou beyond it, and with a “This is the last one, I promise!” I managed to bargain a little more time to walk the length of the promenade and check it out. How could I not?

And when I walked to the top to take a closer look at the chateau d’eau at the end of the promenade, surprise! Behind it extended the Saint Clément Aqueduct, another of the wonderful neoclassical structures in Montpellier.

After turning around and taking one more look to the promenade and the Port du Peyrou, I started walking down the stairs, hurrying to get back to my husband, who had started walking back down the Rue Foch with Stella and was waiting at a restaurant, trying to keep out of the sun and cool off a bit.

As I was walking briskly down the stairs, I slipped on the chipped edge of a step and fell down the last few steps. As  got up, a little bruised but not badly hurt, I had two thoughts:
1. “Luckily I didn’t break my ankle!”
2. (after noticing that the camera made a weird clicking noise and produced a “Lens Error!” message) “Not again!! Well, at least I had already finished taking photos!”

It’s lucky that this ends the “debrief” of our summer vacation – because unfortunately there won’t be new photos coming for a while, since I will have to wait for the camera to be fixed, or will possibly have buy a new one (maybe I should add this to my birthday wishlist!)

But we did have our share of pretty pictures, didn’t we? I hope you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed sharing them with you.

Much love,

Tagged as: France, summer 2010