Montpellier With Mom

After London, we flew back to Montpellier to spend some time in my hometown. We arrived on Monday afternoon and waited for our luggage. Not at all surprisingly, Mom's luggage did not arrive (which would make this lost luggage for the 2nd time). Jokingly, Mom said "what, is it not coming til Thursday?" Unfortunately, she didn't know how true this was. Apparently, the airline that we flew with only had a few flights this week. They flew on Monday afternoon and the next flight wasn't until Thursday afternoon. Because of this little mishap, Mom was stranded in Montpellier for 5 days without a change of pants and only 2 shirts and limited underwear choices. :)

We made the best of it and toured Montpellier for days. We did a LOT of shopping and Mom got a ton of scarves a la French-style. She is VERY cultured now. We went to the Montpellier mall and Mom got to see the madness that is French malls during vacation time. We ate a lot of food (including Mom's first real French croissant, baguette, pain au chocolat and Frontignan muscat [which is a really great sweet dessert wine]) and on Tuesday, we went to the market to get Marseillais soap, some different cheeses for Mom to try and some really awesome candied, dried strawberries. I had a huge lunch and invited Dawn and Cathy over for some tom foolery and yummy food. After shopping some more after lunch, we retired for the evening.

Mom has been teaching me to crochet. I don't think I am quite ready for knitting yet. One hook seems to be all I can handle at the moment.

At one of the department stores, we saw the most hilarious shower curtain ever. Here it is:

Wouldn't that freak you out in the morning? I would love it but it was pretty expensive since we were in the French equivalent of Macy's so I didn't get it. Anyway, we decided on Wednesday, to go bowling. Dawn, Cathy and I took my mom to the big bowling alley in south Montpellier. Here is Mom doing really well in the first game.

Mom also got her hair cut at a French coiffeur. That was really entertaining since she lost about half of her hair. But the haircut looks great! Now her hair is a little bit wavy/curly situation and it's wonderful. Here is Mom at my favorite tea shop enjoying her green/orange tea wearing one of her new scarves.
On our last full day in Montpellier, we took the tourist train, seen below, that went all around Montpellier and gave us some history and sightseeing opportunities in historic downtown. Mom and I loved the train with the really strong accented English commentary. We weren't alone on the train but it was pretty empty anyway. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that the wind was really bitingly cold.
For our last dinner in Montpellier on Thursday, we had crepes at a Creperie where Mom enjoyed a crepe with crab and white asparagus and I had a crepe with mushrooms, ground beef, garlic and creme fraiche. Dessert crepes included a crepe with Nutella and whipped cream and a crepe with strawberry jam. Mom preferred the strawberry jam crepe but I think she is a bit confused. :) Nutella is always the best choice, in my humble opinion.

Finally, Mom's suitcase arrived in Montpellier on Friday (it actually arrived on Thursday but they couldn't deliver it to us until Friday afternoon). After forcing Mom to walk all over Montpellier, we decided to take it easy on Friday and work on various plans for Marseille, Paris and our return to London. Marseille, to visit Laurent, is from Friday night thru Tuesday morning (Feb. 17). Then we are going to Paris from Tuesday thru Friday. Then Friday morning and all of that day we will be in London but just overnight. Mom is leaving from London on Sat. Feb. 21 and I am flying back to France that same day. Keep your fingers crossed for Mom's luggage to arrive from Paris to London since we are flying. We are taking a train from Marseille to Paris so the luggage should be ok since we will be physically attached to it for most of the 3 hour train ride.

Mom said that she will be burning the clothes she was forced to wear for 5 days in Montpellier. Never again will she wear that red polo shirt or that blue sweatshirt. If you see her wearing these clothes, rip them off and burn them.

Here is a link to all the pictures of us in Montpellier if you are interested:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jkimpfbeck/MontpellierWithMom#