Montpellier, France

I am adding photos now that I am back, if you want to see them larger, click on them. Seems like Sara and I were almost always arriving in a town just about the time that they were closing for the middle of the day---that is one reason these streets look so quiet. This flower shop on the right of this street had bouquets out on the sidewalk in front. We saw flowers that we had never seen before on this trip.

























Montpellier is a very scenic place. We were surprised at how nice it was. It is not on the coast, but about 20 miles inland. You can see from the palm trees that line some streets that it has a very mild climate.




It seemed odd to see a Century 21 real estate sign on this quaint narrow street.


The Montpellier France train station, a nice place with bicyciles parked out front. I took a photo of the stairs at the Royal Hotel, where we stayed.
Sara and I did a lot of hauling ourselves and our bags up and down stairs like these. Seems like we were always on the 3rd floor.

Montpellier was the last stop of a segment of the Tour de France and there were a lot of police about....they seemed to enjoy the 'power ride' , a bunch of them zooming around town in groups for no apparent reason.


The large plaza in Montpellier, not far from the train station and our hotel had a carousel and a big fountain with a mossy base. It was a refreshing sight fromt he many sidewalk cafes that were also on the plaza. I took a photo of the weird lunch that Sara and I ordered in one and I described below.



We found a lovely park area and in it were open market style shops. This is where Sara found some French shoes that really fit her well. The park was very long and had fountains, cafes, and the musician you see here.

Well as you all know, we are Happenin' Chicks, and like to be where the action is, so we pulled into Montpellier just as Lance Armstrong was cycling in today. Lance and his buds in the Tour de France. Talk about timing !!

Sara and I got up early and caught the train out of beautiful Barcelona, along the coast and thru the hills to France. No one ever asked for our passport or anything. Even when we bought the train tickets the day before, no immigration, customs, nothing. We just disembarked and exited the station in France.

This town of about 4,000 local residents is lovely, just like a little Paris but full of European student age tourists. First place we have been where we have seen many people w/ dogs. Not the sissy little city lap dogs, but Labs, Goldens, etc...many not on leash, so I guess there is a pretty laid back attitude around here.

We only have one night here, but our train tomorrow doesn.t leave till afternoon, so we should have a good bit of time to see more of this delightful place. We did a lot of walking today. Came back too the hotel and collapsed (litterly) and later went out for a French style sandwich and what else but French Fries..........local stalls sell them in paper cones.

Millie will be glad to knozw that I now have 4 charms on my braclet. I got an Eiffel Tower in Paris, a Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and a cool sailboat here in Montpellier.




I took this far away photo of the Cathedral Sacred Family from atop the hilltop church that we climbed on the first day. I had my 10X zoom camera with me. This weird church has been under construction for a long time. Most of the postcard photos show it with less scaffolding and were taken when the small park across the street was newly planted and the trees were small and one could stand over there and pretty much get the whole building front in the lens. Now the church is a huge construction project wedged into a tight, bustling city block and really hard to photograph. Also, lots of people think it used to look better when the structure just followed Gaudi's original plan, and it seems now that various other people have added their own visionary enhancements that really do make the lower portions look like something at a carnival midway--huge painted bright color fruit clusters that look like a sno-cone stand.

The Sagrada Familia is the famous cathedrial, originally designed by Gaudi { where our word gaudy comes from } It's a giant temple that has been under construction since 1882 and it's not expected to be completed for between 30 to 80 years.

Must go to old emails now to confirm for late arrival in Nice hotel tomorrow, but Sara is working on a blog entry. L