Montpellier: You Should Go

Place de la Comedie – Montpellier’s Central Square

When asked about my favourite part of my recent trip to France, I always mention Montpellier. Paris was wonderful, of course, but that’s to be expected. So my expectations for Paris were high while I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of Montpellier. We choose this mid-size Mediterranean city as a destination based on recent newspaper travel columns from the likes of the New York Times and the Guardian. Also, we were looking for a slightly off-the-radar destination in France. And after staying in the relatively touristy city of Avignon, we were excited to explore a less touristy, yet vibrant, near-coastal city.

We arrived in Montpellier by car, after having visited Pont du Gard and Nimes earlier that day. Trouble was, the train station where we were dropping off the car is undergoing significant renovations so the key drop boxes were no where to be found. So while Ian frantically ran back and forth between drop off lot and train station, I stood on a random street corner with my luggage and tried calling our Airbnb host to advise that we would be late meeting her. However I didn’t know how to dial her # and couldn’t connect. Luckily a man strolled by and advised how to dial a local number. Our host’s reaction was fabulous and really exemplified what I picked up to be the Montpellier culture – it was no problem that we were running late. She was enjoying a bottle of wine with her friend below the apartment and would see us whenever we arrived.

As we walked the 10 minutes from the central train station to our apartment on a cobblestone street, we passed MANY outdoor patios filled to the brink with lively and cheerful patrons. We couldn’t wait to drop off our luggage and grab dinner and drinks from one of these many busy patios.

Aside from just wandering and enjoying its energetic and positive vibe, here’s a summary of some of my favourite aspects about Montpellier.

L’Esplanade

1. Parks and Public Spaces – After spending a few days in Avignon where there really wasn’t any public spaces to sit to read or just observe the city, I was pleased to find such spaces in Montpellier. We were walking an average of 25,000 steps a day each day so having a nice spot to sit down and enjoy the scenery was definitely welcome and appreciated. After browsing vendor tables at the Artist Bazaar sidewalk sale, Ian and I grabbed a park bench to read our new books (we’d recently stumbled upon Le Bookshop, a truly amazing English bookstore and gathering space in historic Montpellier).

2. Happy Hours – Montpellier was all over Happy Hours. And so were we. How is happy hour not a wonderful idea after wandering and exploring all day in the sun? Here we are at the wine bar on the ground floor of our apartment enjoying a pitcher of sangria for I believe 10 Euros. Yes, it was early enough in the evening that we were still engrossed in our books. And on Friday, we were a little late getting to HappyHour so we had to settle for an Irish pub – the only spot in our ‘hood with a few empty seats remaining on their outdoor patio.

Salad Nicoise and Planche Express

3. Food – We ate so well in Montpellier. Luckily, we had recommendations from a couple different friends who had been previously. So we largely stuck to their list of spots and were not disappointed. For lunch on our first day, we went to the main square near the main market (Les Halles) where I had this delicious Salad Nicoise at Cafe des Arts. For dinner, we went to Bistrot de l’Ancien Courrier, which was inside of what felt like a domed cave. It was a beautiful location. You could order a bottle of wine and they would only charge you for what you drank. Very neat, but also a little dangerous since it’s sitting right there in front of you.

Lunch the following day was at Affiche where we found a spot on their large patio and enjoyed this amazing Planche at right 12 Euros….including a glass of wine!! Now that we were getting mildly sick of French food for every meal, we made reservations at Le Tapas for dinner on our last night. The spot was jam packed, but the tapas were pretty delicious although we would have welcomed a little more spice.

4. Sexy Trams – According to the Guardian, Montpellier’s very new tram network has been dubbed the world’s sexiest. Given Ian’s fascination with transit, we rode 3 of Montpellier’s 4 tram lines and I must say they are far nicer with far more colour and flavour than any I’ve ever seen. Each of the 4 lines had its own unique exterior and interior design. I wish I’d taken more photos on board, but here’s someone else’s photos. If you think the exterior is nice, let me assure you that the interior is even better.

 

Lively and beautiful cobblestone streets of Montpellier.

5. Lively Cobblestone Streets – Historic Montpellier is distinguished by lovely, and for the most part extremely narrow cobblestone streets. Here’s a few pictures from the area surrounding our apartment. The band passed through the neighbourhood one day while we were eating lunch.

Oh, and to the left we are standing with the Google Street View car, parked directly in front of our apartment door! Note that this photo was taken by the Google employee himself who was dining adjacent to the car and, seeing our intrigue, got up to show us the interior of the car and take our photo!

Montpellier was an extremely refreshing city, with lots of energy, more locals than tourists, and a cosmopolitan populace from various countries and continents. There was a constant hustle and bustle within the Historic Centre where we stayed of what seemed to be locals enjoying drinks and company at the end of each day.

Let’s just say that I would be very happy to spend much more time in Montpellier. After all, we didn’t have time to rent bikes to ride to the beach (about 50 minutes by bike each way). Here’s hoping that there’s a next time.

Adventuring toward Montpellier

Hello from Paris! Because I’ve been in Paris since last Saturday I’ve been a little preoccupied and my laptop has not left its bag. However after a very busy week with extensive exploring and MANY Fitbit steps (I’m finally leading amongst my Fitbit friends!), I’m taking a well deserved and much needed afternoon break to sit in a cafe and advise you that I’m still alive and, of course, loving France.

Pont du Gard
So since I left off in my previous post, Ian and I rented this cute little guy in Avignon to drive a short distance to Pont du Gard, a 1st century A.D. aqueduct and engineering feat. I’ll spare you the details of its history, but check out the wiki page here

Pont du Gard

In addition to the bridge and the beautiful panoramic views at the top of the cliffs was a really great museum about not only the Pont du Gard itself, but also the rise and fall of the Roman Empire in southern France. The museum did a great job of showcasing the Romans’ remarkable achievements. For instance, they were even using lead pipes in the early centuries A.D.!

Nimes, a city of Roman ruins
From Pont du Gard, Ian drove us to Nimes, the nearby city originally served by the Pont du Gard aqueduct. I’d heard Nimes was a sleepier city so we were pleased to discover its hustle and bustle when we arrived mid-day.

Arena de Nimes

We unknowingly parked away front the tourist area, providing the opportunity to walk through the city on our way to its major attraction – the Arena of Nimes, essentially a Coliseum much like that in Rome, though on a smaller scale.

Again, this site was phenomenal And in remarkably good condition given its age. Built in the 1st century A.D., its layout is the same as modern day arenas. The Romans clearly knew how to manage large groups of people! There was a great audio tour, which provided lots of information and in some cases a little too much detail for my stomach when it came to recounting gladiator fights and public executions. Nevertheless, so neat being inside a 1900+ year old building.

After wandering through the pedestrian, cobblestone streets of historic Nimes and grabbing cold drinks and a crepe, we decided to head toward Montpellier as we were meeting our Airbnb host that evening at 9pm.

Road to Montpellier
Coming to France, I’d decided that I really wanted to go to a Carrefour hypermarket store. I did major group Strategy and Marketing projects on the Carrefour retailer without having ever been inside a store. On our way out of Nimes we passed a Carrefour so decided to pop in. It was basically as expected (I’d watched videos online) EXCEPT all shelf stickers were digital!! Mine and Ian’s minds were blown. How cool is that? And when will we start seeing this in Canada? Way better than printing shelf stickers for every product SKU.

Carrefour parking lot. Yes, I took photos of it!

Further, the parking lot was, for Ian and I, an attraction in and of itself. There were clearly marked pedestrian walkways safely separated from traffic as well as trees and flowers. Definitely a huge improvement over big box store parking lots which offer next to no defined space for pedestrians.

We then took backroads to Montpellier to see what the French suburbs look like and to pass through small towns  on the way. What we noticed was that the entrance to and exit from each town or village was marked by these tree arches. Aren’t they gorgeous?

After this driving experience, we were very grateful for Waterloo Region’s recent addition of multiple traffic circles in lieu of traffic lights. The French love their traffic circles and we entered several on the outskirts of Avignon and Nimes that had 3-4 lanes of traffic WITH traffic lights embedded within the traffic circles. Combine that with driving in rush hour traffic and you’ve got a nice little driving challenge. But Ian did great and got to love our little car.

Only trouble was that the key boxes at our drop off location, the Montpellier train station, were hidden without any instructions posted. The info desk at the station appeared to be vacant but turns out the employees we just off the side chatting with coworkers and ignoring us. Eventually we found. The drop box hidden behind a door (the station was undergoing renovations) but we were late meeting our Airbnb host. Luckily she was super sweet and didn’t mind. As she assured me on the phone, she was just downstairs from the apartment having a glass of wine with her friend so no rush. Ah, the stereotypical French way.

That’s all for now. More to come on Montpellier, which I adored, and, of course, Paris. Lots on Paris.

Avignon: The Land of the Popes

Ah, Avignon. I had little familiarity with the city prior to arriving and exploring aside from knowing its prevalence of medieval buildings makes it a prime tourist attraction. And tourist attraction it is, especially within the inner walls. Don’t get me wrong – Avignon is gorgeous and we had an incredible time here. I just kept wondering how locals live and where they go in Avignon as most people appeared to be tourists.

My Avignon hit list includes:

1. Medieval Buildings & Winding Roads: My favorite aspect of Avignon was the well-preserved medieval buildings. Simply astonishing!

2. Lavender ice cream: Based on a highly favourable recommendation, Ian and I went out to a lovely dinner at Le Cour Du Louvre on our last night in Avignon. Our prix fixe meal – including scallops and shrimp – was amazing and to top it off I tried lavender ice cream as part of dessert. I didn’t even know it existed and was extremely disappointed to learn it was readily available at the ice cream shop across the street and I had yet to induldge. Sadly, we were leaving the following morning and didn’t have a chance to return for more floral ice cream goodness.

I’m continuing my hunt for lavender ice cream in Montpellier, but have not had any luck. We’ve now left the Provence region, which is well known for its lavender fields, and I’m pretty doubtful I’ll have any luck here…

3. Place Pie: A large square just off the main tourist drag adjacent to Avignon’s indoor market. We found a favourite spot and went daily for du cafe american in the morning and beer in the afternoon. On Tuesday, the square filled with flea market vendors and at other times kids took over the space to kick around a soccer ball.

Our Square – Avignon

Other attractions:

4. Palais des Papes: We took the self-guided tour of the Palais des Papes, one of the largest self-prophesed medieval and gothic buildings in Europe. It was a palace, which I was eager to see, constructed in the 13th century. However we opted to decline the audio tours…which was a mistake as there was fairly little context provided for the exhibition. While I might say that the tour itself was somewhat underwhelming as most space was barren – we were left to imagine what the space once looked like – several rooms contained painted ceilings from the 14th century which were in remarkably great condition.

Le Pont d’Avignon

5. Villeneuve Les Avignon: Our Airbnb host recommended we cross the Rhone to see Villeneuve-les-Avignon, essentially a small village on the outskirts of Avignon. It’s home to Fort Saint-Andre, a medieval fortress also dating from the 14th century. Again, there was relatively little offered in terms of actual exhibits or context at the Fort, however it offered spectacular views over Avignon and surrounding area. We also had a great time walking along the fort’s walls. There was also an adjacent garden, les Jardins de l’abbaye Saint-Andre, and while they offered a great view of Avignon, the jardins themselves were not yet fully in bloom.

In total, we spent two and a half days in Avignon and four nights, with a third day spent in nearby Marseilles (approx 70 minute train ride) to the South. While frequently regarded as a city to be avoided given its industrial heritage and higher crime rates, Ian and I had a favourable time. More about our ignorant tourist adventures in Marseilles to come!

Bonjour!

Hello from Avignon!

Just standing outside of our 18th century apartment!

After a 20 hour trip door to door, we made it to Avignon late yesterday afternoon. Our trip was hassle-free, with all connections arriving and departing on schedule. Even better, I was on time meeting Ian at the airport! He was rather relieved.

Two interesting points about our Boeing 777 flight from Montreal to Paris:

1. Rather than having the standard 9 seats across, this plane had 10, resulting in a 2 inch width reduction per seat. Also, I had a beam running under the chair in front of me. Luckily I have short legs and managed to get comfortable despite the obstruction. Ian was not so lucky!

2. Air Canada’s EnRoute just got a whole lot better. This interface is amazing….it even tells gives you accurate expected arrival time at all times.

 

 
Upon arriving in Avignon, we met up with our Airbnb host as scheduled at our loft apartment. After relaxing, showering, and a quick nap, we set out for a delicious dinner with friends who just happened to be passing through Avignon last night. Catching up in Avignon over delicious wine and French food was pretty great.

This morning, we woke up and headed straight for the local market – Les Halles – where we quickly grabbed americanos and chocolate croissants. We also grabbed some provisions including amazingly fresh strawberries, cheese, and cured meat. Oh, and bread, of course. And beer. From the grocery store (this is exciting for us Ontarioans!).

More to come on our day in Avignon. We’re off to Marseille tomorrow, which I’m really excited for. Can’t wait to visit this urban fishing city and try Bouillabaisse, their traditional fish stew. 

A bientot!

Airbnb Accommodations

As mentioned previously, we decided to stay in Airbnb accommodations in all three stops – Avignon, Montpellier, and Paris. Top reasons for choosing Airbnb:

1. Authenticity – who wouldn’t prefer to stay in an authentic cute little French apartment than a standard hotel? Most French apartments have a ton of character and are in mid-rise, older buildings in the heart of the city surrounded by more authentic bistros, cafes, shops, markets and residents. In our opinion, a far more authentic experience than staying in a hotel in the middle of all the tourist attractions.

2. Kitchenette – we’ll be in France for two weeks. It’ll be lovely to be able to shop at the local markets and have a fridge in which to store perishable goods. Further, it will be amazing to have the option to have a home cooked meal (be it breakfast, lunch or dinner) if and when we choose.

3. Space – most European hotel rooms are tiny. Staying in apartments, though small by North American standards, will provide us with at least a small sitting space and dining table to increase comfort.

4. WiFi – most Airbnb apartments include WiFi at no additional cost. This isn’t always the case at hotels. Access to WiFi is critical to ensure we can easily plan our day, check hours of attractions, read reviews, get directions, etc.

5. Price – in all cases, Airbnb accommodations were better priced than the very few hotels we looked into as points of comparison.

So now that you know why we opted to book through Airbnb, meet our 3 apartments!

Stop 1 – Avignon

We’re staying in this spacious and bright loft in the heart of Avignon’s city walls. It’s a mere 10 minute walk from the Central Train Station where we’ll arrive as well as travel to and from Aix-en-Provence and Marseille.

Avignon Apartment Streetview

See Jean-Pierre’s apartment here. 

Stop 2 – Montpellier

Montpellier Apartment

A small but cute apartment right in the heart of Montpellier’s historic area. It’s located in the heart of the Shield in the small pedestrian streets of the historic center, 5 minutes from the famous Place de la Comédie, the Opera and Corum. Beaches are a mere 10 kilometers accessible by Montpellier’s new TRAM system – said to be the world’s sexiest. Ian is only a little excited. 

Montpellier Apartment Streetvie

 

See Martine’s apartment here.

Stop 3 – Paris (Ledru Rollin neighbourhood, 11th arrondissement)

Paris Apartment

I am so excited about this apartment – it’s 2 minutes from subway line 8 and 5 minutes from lines 1,5, & 8. Further, the daily Aligre Market is only 3 minutes away! I’m excited to grab fresh produce, cheese and bread from this market on a near daily basis. The apartment is also near the Seine along which I plan to enjoy a number of morning runs.

Paris Apartment Streetview

See Lea’s apartment here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all for now!

France Week One Itinerary

After much ado, my fellow travel partner in crime (aka partner) and I finally confirmed our itinerary for our trip to France.

Where are we going you ask? Well, first let’s address how we narrowed down the list. We specifically decided to avoid Cote d’Azur –  including Cannes and Nice. Despite a number of recommendations for these cities, we decided that we aren’t going to France to enjoy beaches full of tourists. Rather, we are going to enjoy rich French culture and history while getting a feel for what it’s like to live in Southern France. Also, avoiding travel to the far eastern edge of France will save us precious travel time.

After much research, we identified a number of cities we wanted to visit. Like much of Europe, Southern France is extremely well connected by regional rail. We decided that rather than switching accommodations too frequently, we would set up a couple home bases and do day trips from there.

Avignon, as a top destination in and of itself, was chosen as our first home base, enabling easy day trips to Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, and Nimes. As an East Coaster, I wanted to spend some time along the coast, so we decided to venture slightly westward to Montpellier for the 2nd half of our week in the South.

Southern France Travel Itinerary:

Day 1 (Saturday) – Arrive in Paris, take TGV high-speed train from Charles De Gualle to Avignon; check into apartment.

Day 2 (Sunday) – Explore Avignon and grocery shop – it’s their market day!

Day 3 (Monday) – Take regional train to Marseille. I’m so excited to visit this less touristy seaside city, full of North African influence.

Day 4 (Tuesday) – Take regional train to Aix-en-provence. My partner Ian is anxious to check out this city’s famous fountains.

Day 5 (Wednesday) – Check out of our Avignon apartment and rent a car to drive to Montpellier via Nimes.

Day 6 (Thursday) – Explore Montpellier.

Day 7 (Friday) – Montpellier beach day or bike ride along the coast.

Day 8 (Saturday) – Check out of Montpellier apartment and take TGV train back to Paris.

Please leave comments with recommendations of things to see and do in each of these cities!

Coming soon: A discussion of our reasons for booking accommodations through Airbnb, as well as photos of each apartment. I couldn’t be happier to skip hotels and stay in cute little French apartments!