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Published: June 11th 2017
Indoor market
Phenomenal displays of fish, meat, fruit, veggies, wines, cheeses and desserts. Well, back in Montpellier for 23 nights. Whatever will we do to fill our days here in the south of France? We have already visited many of the sights in Montpellier and know our way around the old town. We don’t even need our map (most of the time).
Time to get out train schedules and visit some of the towns in the area.
Sète We had already visited Sète (see previous blog) but didn’t have dinner at either of the places we had identified. Peter and Bev had recommended the Gourmet Walking Tour which is run by a Canadian woman who has lived in France for 30 years. Hmmmmm. Food, wine, desserts… Sounded good to us.
We met up with Nancy and another couple at the Grand Hotel and off we went. Nancy was able to share lots of interesting information about the city. She has arrangements with merchants in the indoor markets as well as small, owner-operated stores in the city. The tour included tips and techniques for buying stuff at an indoor market. Her suggestions were really useful and we have implemented some of them now that we are back in Montpellier.
We
walked from place to place meeting the merchants and chatting about the various offerings. Head cheese and oysters (not necessarily at the same time) were two things not near the top of my favourite foods list. But, hey, I paid for the tour so I had better try them. Not bad. Dianne says they were actually good!
Nancy gave us a booklet highlighting all the places we stopped. One of the best stops was the Cheese Guy, M. Cailhac. How could I not like a chap whose name is pronounced “kayak”. He gave us a package of cheese to eat at out last stop, the wine merchant. Lots of good information about Roquefort cheese, a cheese that formerly would have been on my head cheese and oyster list.
Once the half day walkabout was over we strolled about the old town again enjoying the canals and all the goings on about us. Feeling a bit lazy, we hopped on a boat for a cruise around the canals and out into the Mediterranean. Sure beat walking and it was nice to review the sights we had seen in our two trips to the city.
We didn’t have the
Head cheese
Yum; actually very tasty! energy to wait around for the supper hour so we just trained home and sat out on our deck. That is the one problem with the apartment. It is just so nice to sit out on the deck and relax.
Pézenas This was our first trip on a regional bus. It was as convenient as the tram and train systems. We enjoyed figuring out how to read schedules, and find bus stop. Chuck and Steph, friends from Pender, have an apartment in Pézenas, a town of about 8,000 people, a short bus ride from Montpellier. They are selling their existing place and have bought the place next door. It was really interesting to see the renovations in progress. When you see the outsides of the buildings, it’s hard to believe how they can be transformed inside. The new place will have its own outside rooftop deck. Wow.
It was fun to sit on the main street with coffee and watch the daily life of the town flow past. One of the most interesting sights was the Theatre. It started life as a chapel (there’s a surprise) in the early 1600s and by the mid-1800s was converted first
See food?
Watching the gal slice the tuna was interesting in itself to an auditorium and then an Italian style theatre. It had galleries and boxes just like the theatres we have seen in Montpellier and Milan. But in a comparatively small town, it was pretty neat.
Montpellier The beauty of having a 23 night house sit is that if we don’t do anything but laze around or maybe walk to a café, we don’t feel like we have wasted our time here. And with the temperature over 30 most days, that is what we feel like doing. Maybe this is ToBeContinued
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