Montpellier - A Nice Place to Visit, But ...

Beautiful old buildings at La Comedie

The fountain in the Place de la Comedie

Seashell corners make it easier for horse and carriage to turn

Following the advice of Pierre, a friendly French man we met in the pool while visiting Phuket, Thailand, we decided to make our home in the old, walking town of Montpellier, France for the month of May.  It's lovely, Pierre said, with many shops and restaurants, and within driving distance of places like Nice, Avignon, Monaco and Cannes. Pierre was right, up to a point.

Our first introduction to old town Montpellier was when we arrived from Barcelona after a lovely drive through vineyards and the eastern Pyrenees and beautiful poppy fields that seem to stretch on forever.  The drive took us a little longer than we had planned, however.  We had been driving for about an hour when we realized the Mediterranean was on the wrong side of the car.  Turning around, we made it to Montpellier without further incident, and carefully followed our landlady's instructions to find the parking just outside Place du la Comedie - the main square of old town (remember it's a walking city).   Missing the turn into the tunnel, we thought we'd just loop around and try again. Two hours later, having looped around on every street in Montpellier old and new, plus a few that have probably remained undiscovered for a century or two, we pulled into a giant parkade and decided to try it on foot.

A two story carousel

Fresh produce - tomato and artichoke

Outdoor restaurants line the streets

The "new" seeming out of place at one end of the square

The humorous - Snoop Chien poster found at the end of a narrow street

Fortunately, a young lady who overheard us hissing at each other in frustration bravely approached to see if she could help.  She phoned our landlady, Daniele, and a rapid exchange in French ensued, accompanied with some smiles and chuckles at the plight of the directionally challenged Canadian couple.  We finally set off in the right direction to meet up with Daniele who guided us to our  beautiful 15th century apartment with its high ceilings, huge carved mirrors, and a fireplace in every room.

Although Pierre's description of  the many shops and cafe's, fresh produce, lovely parks and beautiful sights was spot on, what we weren't prepared for was the crowded and noisy streets at all hours of the day, and the cost of eating in one of the many lovely outdoor restaurants.  Fortunately the grocery stores had lots of fresh produce and baked goods, and the wine is inexpensive, so we didn't suffer too much.

Montpellier has a population of around 250,000, and about a third of those are university students.  As 'old town' is right in the centre of it all with a bar or restaurant every few feet, this tends to be where the students hang out.  And they do.  Long after the shops have closed and the shop owners and their customers have gone home, the students are still there.  The narrow streets act like an echo chamber as the high-spirited, and somewhat inebriated youth wander the streets yelling and kicking beer bottles and peeing on the walls and in the doorways.  Although Ken and I were immune in the large, sound proofed back bedroom of our apartment, my poor sister Pat's bedroom was above the street.  I would have been pouring buckets of water onto the heads of the miscreant youths, but she is a much kinder and gentler soul.

Tiring of the people and the noise - you couldn't walk out of the apartment most days without dodging the crowds -  we contacted Daniele to see if we could move to one of her other properties.  She owns a vineyard and several country homes and gites. Daniele was nice enough to let us move to her winter home mid-month as she was moving to her summer home.  More on this later.

Ken, the ultimate people watcher, wasn't too enthusiastic about the move as he loved Montpellier, but he was outvoted and the move was on.

The crowded streets

Would I go back to Montpellier.  It is a lovely city interspersed with beautiful parks where you can sit and enjoy a glass of wine and listen to the many street musicians who dot the square every day.  But I fear that if the powers that be don't take steps to curtail the noise and filthy habits (peeing in the streets - really??) of the younger population, it will lose its tourist appeal and a good part of its economy.  Definitely not the retirement spot for me.

Note - Montpellier is not the place for driving a car.  We had picked up a car in Barcelona as we wanted to see the French countryside.  The first time we ventured out of the city, it took us an hour and a half to find out parking garage, even though we got within a few blocks a dozen times.  The second time, it took two hours, and at one time we were in the pedestrian part of the city weaving behind people sitting at the cafes with inches to spare, about a block and a half away from where we wanted to be.  Montpellier is narrow streets, one way roads, roads that get blocked off at different times of day, and roads that spoke out in all directions so you can't tell what is a right turn versus a bear right, versus a veer to your right.  Combine that with excitable French drivers and we were getting home each night close to tears and not speaking to each other. After several days we finally found a general store and sprung for a European GPS (as opposed to the phone GPS which caused the right turn problems noted) - best $79 ever spent and much cheaper than relationship counseling all around.

Keep watching our blog for adventures from the French countryside.