On Saturday, Montpellier had a little welcome to the city tour shindig for free for all new residents. Naturally, I signed up since I heard we were getting lunch at the end. It started with a little breakfast of various pastries and juices and then on to the walking tour of downtown. It was kinda long and I actually lost interest about halfway through since it was about 2 hours long. Dawn and I both learned some interesting things about the city but couldn’t hear the tour guide most of the time so we ended up talking more to the other American girl near us who was with an Australian guy and a Polish couple. We actually talked so much that we eventually got separated from our group and had to run to find them.
After the walking tour, we got to sit in a huge auditorium with the 800 or so other people who attended this event and listen to the mayor of Montpellier rattle off facts about the city as well as introduce her entire cabinet of about 30 people. That took forever and obviously, no one in the audience was that enthused by the end of that introduction. About an hour after the start of this little chat, Dawn and I decided to get up and walk around waiting for the lunch to be served. By going into the wrong room, we ended up finding out that lunch was being served on the 3rd floor. We nonchalantly went upstairs and hovered around the food tables like vultures until they finally opened it up.
The food was all supposed to be local delicacies and it was…interesting. There was plenty of bread, smoked salmon, raw vegetables, little tortilla wraps with God knows what inside, some strange pastry thing that had something too sweet inside (not really sweet and not really sour, it’s hard to describe), a plate full of random pork products and sausages and of course, oysters on the half shell which had a very sea taste.
I wish I could tell you all about the desserts but the vultures that came for this little lunch gobbled up all of the desserts in a matter of minutes. By the time we got over there, there were literally crumbs left. I got a yummy lemony tart before someone snatched it off the table but couldn’t get my mitts on any éclairs or other awesome desserts. I think Dawn got some fruit before people started loading their bags with them. We also got to try some of the local wines including the Muscat of Frontignan, which is very sweet and delicious.
On our way out, they gave us goody bags with a bottle of wine from the area, a calendar with Montpellier propaganda, some free pens, lots of theatre info and a free ticket to a soccer game on Friday night!
Things I learned about Montpellier:
• 1 in 4 people are students
• 10 new people move to Montpellier a DAY
• There are about 250,000 people here and 60,000 people are students
• All construction here is of a Middle Age type. There is no Roman or Greek architecture here.
After the really long day of the tour (8:45am – 2:45pm), Laurent and his family came to Montpellier to hang out and take me to this really neat little city about a half hour from Montpellier called Aigues-Mortes. It is a city within castle walls. Very fun with great little shops and tons of outdoor cafes as per France. To celebrate Amaury’s 1st birthday, Laurent took us all out (including Dawn) for a crepe dinner.
For those of you unfamiliar with crepes, they are not just a dessert food. You can always have a crepe with sugar and lemon or nutella or maple syrup or tons of jams but you can also have a “meal” crepe with ham, cheese, ground beef, vegetables, chicken, etc. You can also get a “meal” crepe made in 2 ways. The normal way which is just a crepe with the fillings or the BETTER way which is a crepe filled with ingredients and then shredded cheese on top and grilled panini style in the oven. Very delicious indeed.
In all, it was a very long day but very fun and informational to say the least.
Your British word of the day lesson: Always say TROUSERS when referring to PANTS in the UK. Pants in the UK are the term for undies.
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