Montpellier

I went to Montpellier with Fatma, from Turkey, on Wednesday and it was awesome! Even though it’s a tourist city it’s still on the smaller side and it has an authentic atmosphere. The weather was absolutely perfect for the few days that we were there. We got there in the early afternoon, found a hotel, and started wandering around the city. We came across a medical school which we initially thought was a cathedral. Jardin des Plantes was wonderful. My favorite part of the garden was a tree called "un arbre à souhait".  People write their secrets, wishes, or secret wishes and hide them in the tree. I don't think I have any secrets, so I wrote a wish instead. Next we went to the Promenade du Peyrou- a gorgeous parc with amazing fountains and a great view of the city. Maybe it’s just because it’s more of a student city, but we felt like everyone was paired off and making out haha. After wandering around centre-ville for a while (we saw the elders there!) we were starving, because we hadn’t had lunch, so we got dinner at le café 1893 at like 6, which got us a few odd looks because the French don’t usually eat dinner before 7 or 8.

Random Doors- Love them!

Super cute pizzeria! We wanted to eat here, but didn't have the chance :(

The next few photos are all part of this, which is the Medical School.... I'm jealous.

Jardin des Plantes

Fatma

L'arbre à souhait

Moi

We went into Swarovski and this was my favorite :)

Elders!

In the morning we got croissants at another café in the plaza in front of La Comedie. We got lost trying to find different sites, but it was fun! We went to Tour de la Babote, L’eglise Saint-Roch, Le Corum, Polygone (shopping mall!), Esplanade d’Europe, and Antigone. It was lots of fun. Unfortunately my camera died once we got to Antigone, so I only have a few photos of that. We saw some guys playing hockey on bikes- I think I might want to try it someday! A very sweet 84 year old woman took a picture for us, and was telling us about how she was born in Montpellier and how much she loved it- total sweetheart. By then our feet were feeling abused, so we went to the hotel and crashed for an hour before meeting up with Fatma’s friend, Paul, by the fountain in front of La Comedie. 

Look closely- click on it even! It's a painting :)

My admirer is a painting too... haha

Inside Eglise Saint-Roch

Another painitng! Isn't it so cool!?

On top of Le Corum

Behind the Polygone, by Antigone?

Bathing men founting... Nice haha

He took us to a tiny restaurant with delicious pizza, a pub where we got drinks (hot cocoa for me) and played Uno, then to a bar that had all sorts of pirate décor. It was awesome! They were playing lots of American music, so I was singing along most of the time. All of a sudden this guy came up to me, started kissing me and asking how I was doing. Of course, I had never seen him before in my life haha! I thought I had a pretty unique face, but who knows… Paul pushed him away a bit and told him he must be confused, etc. and I think that the guy thought we were “together” and started apologizing and bolted. It was rather hilarious! We had to head back to the hotel shortly after that (because there are no attendants after 11pm, and we’d have to ring the bell and wake them up) so Paul walked us back. But, once we got back to our room Fatma and I discovered we were still hungry (didn’t eat lunch again, and only had one piece of pizza) so we ran and got some delicious Chinese takeout. In the morning we grabbed paninis and Madeleines for the train ride back to Toulouse. We met up with Gokhan, went window shopping, got kefta kebabs, and hung around the train station for an hour, since the train we had wanted to take got canceled. Overall, wonderful trip! And, I even got some of my homework done on the train! On the train back to Albi some girl was sketching everyone in the car. It was really cool to watch!