MONTPELLIER

27-29 September 2023

Our holiday was going much too quickly, but the one advantage was that it was now time to meet up with our friend Robbie. We’d be in Montpellier for a few days before going to Marseille for the South Africa vs Tonga game in the Rugby World Cup 2023.

Robbie was coming in by train from London and would meet us at our shared Airbnb apartment just outside of the Montpellier city centre. We were driving from Nimes and had chosen an apartment with a garage so we could stow the car and explore with more freedom on foot.

We pulled into the road to see Robbie on the doorstep; we could not have timed it better!

Our host came down to greet us. Jean-Pierre spoke less English than we did French, so we slipped into Frenglish to get the basic instructions (keys, wifi, city map) and headed towards town. Walking and talking to catch up with our old friend.

We were all very pleasantly surprised, having done very little research on Montpellier, when we arrived at the one recommendation that Jean-Pierre had made that I had recognised – La Place de la Comedie. A vast pedestrian square surrounded by ornate buildings and with the obligatory fountain, we knew at first sight that we were in for a treat for the next few days!

We did a rudimentary lay-of-the-land check and decided that since we had already booked a walking tour for the next morning, there was little point duplicating efforts. It was too busy for comfort on the bustling square, so we randomly picked one of the roads that lead off it and agreed to stop at the first shady area that offered a welcome beer.

An easy ask, it would seem. We found ourselves on a more intimate square with shops along the left side and a long tented seating area in the middle, servicing the row of restaurants and cafes along the right. Picking one at random, we sat down, barely taking a breath on the conversation that had started at home.

Once seated and acclimating, we noticed the radical difference in price for a pint of beer… and so began the quest to beat the price. With an opening of 7.50 Euros, there was a lot of room for improvement. By the time we moved on from the square a couple of hours – and a few cafes – later, we had already slimmed down the price tag to 4.50 Euros!

With the sun a little lower in the sky, the temperature was far better suited to sight-seeing, so we did a loop of the old town and made our way up the hill to the obviously-important arch at the top of the slight incline that didn’t quite qualify as a hill.

Consulting the map, it was discovered to be Montpellier’s very own Arc de Triomphe. The gate was dedicated to Louis XIV The Sun King with emblems that have the King standing on a lion (the English) and an eagle (the Germans). This symbolised how he’d concluded the 100 years of wars ‘with difficult neighbours’. And made for most excellent photographs.

Our valiant effort on the culture front was rewarded when we spotted the proverbial black swan – walking down the incredibly elegant high street, we spotted a 3.90 Euro pint in a dingy pub just off one of the side roads. Small round tables squeezed under the shade of an umbrella of a tree, we simply could not refuse Le Foch.

The waiter – yes, one waiter for the whole bar – was a young Zimbabwean chap. Information he volunteered on hearing our accent, which he said was not very common in these parts. We were just happy to be here together and having a wonderful time.

With a well-kitted Airbnb apartment at our disposal, we decided to do a quick grocery shop at the local supermarket for a picnic-style charcuterie dinner of roast chicken, hams, cheeses and baguettes to wash down with some of the wines we had brought with us from our wine route. Delicious!

THURSDAY

We’d bought enough supplies to start the day with a homemade bacon baguette sandwich, anticipating it would be a vigorous day with the walking tour and satisfying whatever other curiosities we had for the city.

We met our guide, Luis from Venezuela, at the fountain at La Place de la Comedie and minutes later were off on our way.

As is commonplace, the tour began with a history of the town. Montpellier is relatively young in European terms, having been formed in 985 AD and not having the ancient Roman Empire background that the nearby cities had. The settlement was founded by the Guilhem family, a feudal dynasty from Toulouse, who built a castle and defensive walls and ruled it until the 12th century. Two of the towers are still surviving and we saw both.

By the 13th century, Montpellier had established itself as a centre of trade, thanks to its fortuitous position on the route between Spain and Italy. It was also established as a centre of education because of the schools of Law and Medicine that had been set up in the late 12th century by Willam VII.

In 1349, Montpellier came under the control of King Philip VI of France. It was thought to be one of the most important cities in France at that time in history, although towards the end of the 14th century, life became very difficult for those who lived and worked here. Successive plagues killed many people, perhaps as many as a third of its population. By the start of the 15th century, however, Montpellier had managed to recover some of its former status and economy.The city is still known for its Faculty of Medicine and is applying for UNESCO City of Heritage which will help fund the renovations for their bid for Capital of Culture in 2028.

Luis shared some interesting facts with us:

• The local language is Occitan, which was almost extinct but is trying to be revived through the school system.
• There is no mountain in Montpellier, despite the ‘mont’ in the name.  Clapas is an Occitan term meaning pile of rocks and refers to the origin of the site where the city of Montpellier was developed around the 10th century, on elds of stones covered by Kermes Oak.
• In the Middle Ages, Montpellier was an important city of the Crown of Aragon (and was the birthplace of James I), and then of Majorca, before its sale to France in 1349
• La Place de Comédie used to be known as ‘the Square of the Egg’ because of its oval shape around which cars would pass through into the city. Now it’s pedestrian in the city centre to be quieter and more eco friendly.
• St Roch is the patron saint and is always depicted with a dog. There is a shoe shop in town called Erbe Chausseur which is opened each Holy Day, 16 Aug, so that pilgrims can come and taste water from the well from which St Rich drank, which is still intact today and happens to be at the back of the shop.
• The Jean Monnet Square (where we’d begun our beer quest on the first night) commemorated the achievements of its namesake; a Socialist who introduced the separation of church and state, the right to Sundays off and the concept of paid leave.
• The Amphitheater of Anatomy was revolutionary in its time. Designed for observation, it is octagonal on the outside but circular inside with 8 windows around the circumference to prevent shadows. Condemned were dissected for students to watch and learn (like the Gallery in Gray’s Anatomy).
• Montpellier is currently a mix of 40% students and 30% retirees, thanks to the legendary education credentials and the 300 days a year of sunshine.
• The city has their own street artists. Their most famous are Mr BMX who affixes parts of bicycles onto city walls and Invader, who makes Space Invader mosaics above street names… and if you plot all the Space Invaders onto a map of Montpellier, they are all in the shape of a Space Invader!
• One of the surviving towers has 2 pines on top. Michel de Notre Dame (Nostradamus) was at the University of Montpellier but flunked out. It was when he left and went to Italy that he started writing his prophecies. He predicted that when the pines die, the city of Montpellier will be destroyed. Since he had already correctly forecast the fall of the French kings 300 years after his death, the city hires two full-time gardeners to tend to the pines… just in case.

The tour concluded within spotting distance of the Best Bakery in France 2015, which seemed like a sign. I joined the queue and agonised over what to order as the long string of people in front of me edged closer to the door and disappeared into the small shop to get served. I got us each a feuilleté saucisson (sausage roll) and we wasted no time tucking into the layers of flaky pastry with porky herby centre.

With map in hand, we plotted a route to cover the sights not included in the tour. This led us back to the Aquaduct we’d seen on the tour that had brought water to Montpellier from St Clements some 18km away though the aqueduct and then 17km of lead pipes. We walked along the full 800m length of the impressive aqueduct structure before turning back to visit the Jardin du Plante (Botanical Gardens).

The Botanical Gardens are the oldest in France, founded by Henry IV in 1593. They are now owned and run by the Medical faculty, thus are a collection of plants that are useful rather than the conventional, largely superficial landscaped beds. Sort of disappointingly, one of their accomplishments is a large collection of grasses and succulents from South Africa. A long way to travel to see a garden from home!

We worked our way back around into the Old Town through the Arc de Triomphe, which was thirsty work and warranted a stop-in at the trusty Le Foch pub. It was already buzzing, and again, remarkably, there was a single waitress managing all the tables.

Last stop was to cross to the corner of town to investigate the archaeological site. A bit ordinary compared to the splendour of the rest of the Old Town.

We had booked dinner on The Fork at a steakhouse just around the corner from Le Foch. Conspicuously early it would seem, based on the fact that the host was at the door of the empty restaurant waiting to greet us. I finally got to try the steak tartare I had been after the whole holiday, opting for the Parmesan and sundried tomato variant. Delicious!

The chaps wanted to watch the rugby at 21h00, which was a bit late to be out on the town with an early start the next day. So we made our way home and enjoyed the game with a very civilised glass (bottle) of red (or two) from the comfort of our wonderful apartment.