Un jour a Montpellier

Nick, Lindsey, Sarah and I went to the southern provencale city of Montpellier this week. Located about an hour and a half southwest of Aix by car, we have been interested in visiting this city for a while and decided to make our debut trip a 'look-see' day trip. In current travel literature, Montpellier, population 225,000, is described as France's fastest growing city. "Located just a few miles inland from the sea, it has been transformed from a sleepy, university city into the powerhouse of Mediterranean France – and the new darling of the international party set." 1 Montpellier is described by one visitor brochure as "an ancient, academic city with handsome historic buildings, abundant gardens and an impressively vast central square". OK, so let's take a look! We arrived at midday and went directly in search of a cafe for lunch in that 'vast central square' known as Place de la Comedie. The square is dominated by the opera house of the same name and is also by the fountain of the Three Graces, both of which you see here...

The cherubs in the fountain were precious....

Place de la Comedie is home to not one, but two, grand opera houses a mere 400m apart. The other one is the Berlioz opera. Monpellier is known for having a large, well endowed music program and hosts events of all kinds year round.

Once on this great plaza, we had a number of inviting cafes to choose from and we settled on the Cafe 1893, which might very well have been there since then. We got a great outdoor table which allowed us to listen to street musicians and watch the constant parade of people walking by. Apparently this pedestrian zone is one of the largest in Europe with some 60,000 people through it each day. There were far fewer when we were there for lunch but by afternoon when schools were out it was full of people of all ages. It never felt crowded though, just full of energy.

After lunch, we began our very informal, self-guided walking tour of the city. We started out from Place de la Comedie on rue de la Loge, one of the main shopping streets. We saw most of the same shops one finds in Aix, only they were bigger, as well as others that were new to us. On past the retail taunts, we took rue Foch toward the Arc de Triomphe...

This arch, built at the end of the 17th century, is an imitation of the gates in Paris and was constructed to honor Louis XIV. Passing under the beautiful Arch, we crossed the periferique and entered Place Royale du Peyrou, a large public square with a grand statue of Louis XIV on horseback and at the far end a water tower.

Nick's three girls!!

From this terraced promenade, de Peyrou provides views as far as the Med and Cévennes National Park. The walk leads eventually to an aqueduct modelled on the Pont du Gard, which is located to the north outside Nîmes.

We continued our tour passing the Jardin des Plantes, created by Henry IV and one of France’s oldest botanical gardens. We will go here on our next visit, hopefully when Mom, the landscape achitect is visiting. Next stop was the Faculty de Medicine, the oldest still-active medical school in the Western world. Montpellier was only two centuries old in 1181, when its Lord Guilhem VIII signed a surprising and far-reaching edict. He declared that anyone, regardless of religion or background, could teach medicine in Montpellier.

Nick and I standing at the doors to this illustrious institution...

There was much more to see in Montpellier, but the afternoon got away from us so after a brief stop in a cosy cafe we headed back to Aix with definite plans to return to this fascinating city soon.

1. http://www.timeout.com/travel/montpellier/intro
2. ibid.

Tourist information: http://www.ot-montpellier.fr/