Montpellier, Phase One - More Pictures

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Had a few extra photos (well, many) that seemed to be too many for the last blog. So here they are:


• a few random shots from Montpellier
• a bunch from the Montpellier Zoo
• a few from our day trip to Sète



We are off to Brussels to visit the new friends we met in Italy last year so this is ToBeContinued.

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Photos

Lest we Forget
Poppies appear all over the place. Can't imagine seeing a whole field of them.

Wall Art
An artist known as Monsieur BMX puts these partial bikes into the walls all over town. You can see him in action on YouTube!

Building Art
On more than a few sides of buildings you can see paintings that are so real it is incredible. One is a mixture of real windows and paintings. We took a tour where the guide asked us to tell her how many windows were real. We all got different answers!

Graffiti or wall art?
Not sure which this is. On a highway overpass all the columns were covered with "art". Better than the usual junk you see sprayed all over the place.

Odd bird at the Zoo
The Zoo in Montpellier is free (except for the Amazon exhibit) and pretty good. We found the way this bird was sitting(?) to be fascinating.

Signage
The Zoo isn't the most level place in Montpellier and we really enjoyed their signs. And that isn't Dianne and me on the middle section!

Buddies
These two rhinoceroses (I looked that up!) were almost inseparable while we were there.

Not buddies
The dromedary was not a happy camper. He kept trying to bite the other guy who was probably baiting him. But he wasn't mad enough to actually get up and do anything about it.

Graceful
The giraffes are great to watch as they glide their way around the enclosure. And the enclosures are huge (and contain no predators)

Lunch time
and me without my bar code reader.

Antigone fountain
This area just off the old city was redeveloped in the 1970s on some former military land. There are three "half" statues holding up the bowl of the fountain. We thought this guy looked like he just realized he forgot to wear his bathing suit.

Sete day trip
We hit market day on our trip to the Mediterranean.

Lots of canals
These add a lot to the enjoyment of walking around the town.

Stairs
These 400 stairs didn't add a lot of enjoyment but, in the end, the views were worth the climb.

View one way
Beautiful

Surprise! There's a chapel up there
A beautiful little chapel with a huge cross stands prominently on the crest of the hill.

Life's a beach!
Miles of sand in this area.

Mussel beach
Different kind of muscle beach than they show in the beach movies. Here shellfish farming is big business.

I am not lost.
Despite what Dianne appears to show here, I know exactly what bus stop we are approaching.

Self cleaning toilets
It would be almost worth it to stay inside to see how it works. Almost.

Where is Saint Sophie Francois I?
Two identical working boats. Wonder what happened to the original Saint Sophie Francois.

New and Old.
Quite a contrast. Makes you realize just how much restoration has been done in these old towns.

Interesting statue
A médiathèque is a public institution functioning as a library, containing not only paper and electronic books, newspapers and magazines, but also multimedia materials like videos (movies, documentaries) and sound recordings (music, audio books). Who knew? Thanks Google.