88 - I don't think we're in VT anymore

Sunday, June 23

Here marks the start of my goodbye tour here in France. I'm coming home with much more than last time, I didn't realize it's about 12 lbs more than before. Good thing I could offload things into a duffel bag and check another bag. Since I only have a 40 minute turn around for my flight (BIQ to CDG, then CDG to MPL), I decided to hold onto my rolling carry-on suitcase; we'll see if the checked bags make the trip or if I need Air France to just ship 'em to Newark.

I had another gift casualty to French security this morning: a can of chichons (like a paté) had to be surrendered. I'd thought it'd be fine as a solid food but I guess metal cans don't fly in hand baggage. 🤷‍♂️ It's a shame, but so is life. After that, things went smoothly for boarding and catching the transfer in Paris. I'm not sure how much I actually slept on the flights but I was plenty tired aboard the planes.

Since it was a flight covering the south of France, the window seat only showed a whole lotta farmland this flight when we were below the clouds.

I had to leg it, but I managed to make the quick turnaround. There was a surprising distance to cover considering I'd arrived just a few gates down but had to make a big circuit to enter the departure side of things.

Once in Montpellier, it was confirmed that the checked baggage didn't make the quick turn around, fortunately, Air France would deliver them to my hotel once they arrived on the 5pm flight. I didn't mind the 10 minutes it took to resolve the bag situation because it ended up taking 1.5 hours of waiting to get the rental car. The sole guy at the counter seemed efficient (my rental only took 5-10 minutes to complete), there was just a slew of customers whose contracts took 15-30 minutes a piece 😅 but there's nothing to be done about it, besides it's good to have time to really reflect on if you need a rental car 😂

It's a Mazda 2, it's surprising how similar this set up is to my Mazda 3 at home. It wasn't the most high-tech nor flashiest vehicle I've driven here in France (probably the least powerful engine I've driven) but I was so thankful for the return of dials and knobs for radio and air controls.

Driving into Montpellier's historic centre, my gps s'était trompé a few times but I did eventually reach the Place de la Comédie. My hotel for the night is just outside the Place; I dropped my bags off before taking a bit of a walk. Turns out both the hotel and tourist office had options for me after 14h, so I sat down for a quick lunch while a guy in the park played his guitar for all the world; he really likes the song "Shallow", he played it at least 3 times while I was listening 😂

I parked under the Place de la Comédie. The advice I received from a colleague familiar with Montpellier said to watch for pickpockets here; I guess I arrived at a slow hour cause the place was pretty quiet. Honestly, a nice general use open space with the trams running along one side.

Time for a plat du jour et un verre de vin, let the vacation begin.

Le musée Fabre; I didn't go in but it makes the list of les quois-faire of Montpellier.

A quick stop at the tourist office yielded a map of the centreville with points of interest marked. I stopped in to check into the hotel and secure the bags I had in the room before hitting the trail. First up, Place de la comédie!

The buildings around the place aren't too flashy but still are tastefully stylish. I'm not 100% certain but I'm guessing most of the centreville was constructed with quarried...

|A) Marble| |B) Granite|

|C) Sandstone| |D) Calcaire|

D) limestone & final answer.

🎵🎵🎵...

https://www.montpellier-france.com/discover/a-thousand-years-of-history/the-cities-of-montpellier-mediterranee-metropolis/beaulieu/

An interesting fountain, but I don't know if I'd say it's all that comedic.

From la Place de la Comédie, I continued on south through the stone paved streets of the centreville. I was surprised to see so many things closed on Sunday but the town is pretty neat overall. Someone had mentioned to me that it's a big university town and I could feel that in some areas. There was also a surprising number of beggars with dogs; seeing one dog holding a paperback book in its mouth got a chuckle out of me as I passed by. I was also super tempted to take a picture of a guy passed out near a tram stop with the longest, most perfect pendulum of snot I've ever seen, but I managed to restrain myself.

A pretty good trompe l'oeil as we reach the southern edge of the centreville

This old observation tower made the list of quois-faire but I couldn't really see any way to interact with it. Maybe I arrived when they didn't have tours?

Another trompe l'oeil mimicking the reflection of a church; pretty creative!

I think this is the back side of ye olde chamber of commerce; this chamber can fit so much commerce.

This little off-shoot from la rue de l'ancien courrier was all gussied up but nothing was open.

I stumbled across this very modest building located not far from the important looking provincial government building. It was marked on the map as a point of interest and turns out its an old Jewish bath. It didn't look open but I spent a few minutes reading over the plaques it had posted outside; I guess there was a robust Jewish quarter in Montpellier dating back to the medieval era.

A little googling reveals that the genders are written correctly: Francèse served as governor for the King until her eldest son came of age. She didn't give up the village of Leucate to Spanish forces in exchange for her husband's life. #Ladyboss

There was a nice plaza here despite the church being completely fenced off for renovation work. The carved guys holding up the saint figures appear to be working pretty hard.

I wonder how many arcs de triumph / victory arches exist in France.

Out in Promenade de Peyrou there was a decent amount of open space, but the main feature was the chateau d'eau and aqueduct.

This aqueduct only looks Roman, it wasn't built until the late 19th century as the city's demand for water increased. Rather than do a boring underground pipeline, they added a bit of flair and opted for the aqueduct.

Inside the water tower, the stalactite decorations were an interesting touch to include.

There was a guy here singing and playing songs of Occitane origin; I tossed a few cent coins his way for the educational entertainment provided in this scenic spot. The view from the chateau d' eau was pretty good today. Apparently Louis XIII had issued a decree that the chateau d' eau would be the highest point along the ramparts and so that it's view wouldn't be obstructed.

I stumbled upon this cathedral as I walked along the old ramparts of the city. It takes a minute for the sheer size of those cylinders to sink in.

This cat's rear paw appeared to be turned the wrong way, I don't know if it was an injury or something from birth but it didn't stop the cat from giving it's belly a light scratching to complement my head scratches.

This felt very college town-like but a type of shop I can get behind: a board game café.

A bit further down the road was a big street market of clothes and knick-knacks

Don't forget the cat café too. A quick peek through the window didn't reveal cats milling about, but maybe that's because they have a (h)air lock room to ensure nopawdy escapes while people are chat-ting.

Having seen the old town, I made my way towards some more modern areas and found that I actually quite liked walking through the Antigone neighborhood. They've added some really neat architectural flairs to the buildings. And the White Tree was also an interesting building to get different angles of.

It's been a while since I read Greek tragedies freshman year in highschool. I think Antigone was related to but not part of the whole Oedipus thing.

The place was organized, I guess, like a modern forum. The housing, shops, and restaurants all occupied a perimeter around a central courtyard with the buildings including a bit of flair at the top to provide additional shade.

I don't know why the water was red, but here's a fountain with red water. And it's not supposed to be wine, Bacchus/Dionysus had his own courtyard a few buildings further past this.

I kept hearing Mariokart starting beeps as I approached the place d' Europe. The beeping countdown was to signal changes in short dance music that this large group of kids would jump in or out of if they knew the dance.

L'arbre blanc, the various balconies do give the place a tree-type profile.

Remember, don't drink and drive

For dinner, I made my way back into the historic part of town and ended up at just some restaurant in a quiet plaza. Seated next to me was a table of people with shirts saying "natation" on them; when asked by the server about the shirts, they responded that they had competed today at a swim competition in Montpelier and will do an open water swim tomorrow. Apparently one woman in their group is the reigning 100m & 200m backstroke champ in France for her age group.

This street had the nice sign and overhead decorations but not a whole lot of stuff actually going on. Maybe that was the point? The courrier could access cross streets easily on this road?

The plaza I ended up seated in for dinner as the light began to wane. It seems the church was repurposed quite a few years ago.

Les suppions, which turns out is a type of squid.

I made a quick visit for the sunset and returned to the hotel. No sign nor word about bag delivery (other than they've arrived in MPL and the delivery person would contact me). Oh well, guess I'll see what the morning brings or if I can make the 15 minute detour to the airport for the bags. On the otherhand, simply having Air France ship my bags back home would be a slight inconvenience from not having all my things BUT it would mean I could travel very light for the rest of this trip. So, maybe there's a silver lining to this.

Louis XIV, the sun king as the sun sets on his reign.