Trip to France. ( Arriving at Montpellier ) part 6

Still in Paris we took a boat tour at night that went around some of the bridges and main tourist attractions, I should mention that at this point I am getting tired of expressos and carve for a coffee with milk. Even if you ask for a "cafe du cream", its like an expresso with a hint of milk. The only bonus to French Cafes compared to Melbourne is that they usually serve the coffee with a small dark chocolat and a cookie.... *sighs, You can't have everything.

We took a train at night and arrived at midnight at Montpellier. Pretty much crashed in a mattress with Ivan Jr, We have been walking and carrying bags up and down the world. We will rest for a couple of days and then head to Clermont Ferrand Film Festival.

The next day we walk around some of the little old streets of Montpellier, They are so narrow and beautiful, I just want to take out a camera and shoot a movie. I brought a handycam wiht me, but managed to lost the charger to it. Later on here I bought a charger on Ebay France, and paid with PayPal. But apparently they thought it was a fraudulent transaction and they froze my accounts for my own safety.... One week after I solved the issue but the seller had send the money back, and now it's too late, I don't have any video of the trip.

But here are some photos !.

They have a whole area of the city centre that is only for pedestrians. They only allow cars for 30 minutes during the day.

The city is filled with this paintings, awesome effect !.

The streets are on an angle so that when it rains/snows the water runs down the middle.

Somebody divided by 0.

This one is called "The little Arch of Triumph". Supposed to be a replica of the Paris one.

An old roman aqueduct that runs for a couple of kilometers. There are saturday markets underneath.

That night Maurice cook for us a welcome dinner. It was something called  Chucrut it was awesome. Lots of Meat with Colesaw... Also a homemade vainilla slice, and My first French Cheese and Wine. At the start I couldnt tell much of the differences between the wines, but now I am starting to get a basic Idea. Overall the general goal is to drink as much as possible while trying to look completely sober and intellectual.

Mission accomplished.

Montpellier was overall more clean than Paris. Unfortunately they are building extension tram tracks all over the city and the construction generates lots of traffic, noise and dirt. The trams are pretty similar to our Melbourne Trams. The modern white ones. It costs 1.20 Euros for a ticket one way.

One thing that I noticed here that took my by surprise is that between around 12 to 2pm all the shops are closed. Except restaurants. They are close for lunch. But lunch here takes hours, so everything closes. Its unreal. Also on Sunday very few shops open.


When you go to dine at a restaurant you have to be there just after 8 and before 9, or you wont get to try the 'good' menus. For a decent restaurant a meal will cost between 11 to 15 euros. Including Entree, Main, Desserts + Cheese, and usually they take coffee after dinner.

So basically, they spend 2-3 hours dinning, 1 hour having lunch, and 30 minutes for breakfast....

Now that I mention breakfast. Its cafe with one or two slices of bread and butter and marmalade. Thats it.
Lunch is a light lunch, usually salads with a bit of ham. And the dinner is the monster 3 course thing.

Personally, I think is stupid to be hungry for the whole day, waiting for a massive dinner and go to sleep full.

Food and the French its a completely different universe.

By the time I leave to Clermont Ferrand, I am dying for a Burger, or some cheap chinese fried rice. Or a Meat pie!. I hope I can find some 'american' street food there.

We shall see.