Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Set our alarms for 8:00am again. One snooze and up and at ‘em better than the day before’s 2 snoozes and slow exit from our beds to get up and going still adjusting a bit I guess. Woke the kids up and had breakfast. I sent Shelby out to the Boulangerie to buy some croissants for the car ride as we were headed to Montpellier to pick up our fed ex bag that we shipped with our extra belongings.

One of the many Boulangerie’s in Servian.

It was decided that I drive as I have not yet. Have I mentioned that the driving is crazy here, like fast and crazy. There are toll booths that resemble the ferry terminals at home but you’re approaching and departing at ridiculously high speeds and no marked lines, speed limits of 130km (also the speed you approach and depart the toll booths at) on the “motorway”  as the Australian GPS voice lady says, 90km on the the narrow 2 way side roads. We get going out of the parking area and Justin warns me the clutch is a little “springy” whatever that means. I reverse and get going after revving it a bit, almost stall but save it then get to the first stop sign and again rev it am not going anywhere as an older man is dragging his garbage bin down the road and gives me that “what the heck woman” look. I just shrug my shoulders and smile. A couple more stops and I get the hang of the clutch and am good to go.

We pick up our fed ex package then head to Montpellier. I make it to the underground parkade at the Centre de Comédie in the heart of Montpellier. Where I attempt once to park the car then give up, this is no Costco parking lot stall, I’m sure it’s a 2 stalls to 1 ratio when compared to Costco. I don’t normally give up but there were cars behind me wanting to get by and it was too much pressure. I got out and let Justin take over, he very easily parked the car in reverse into the tiniest of stalls and off we went to explore and have lunch.

Wow, it is beautiful. We walked out of the parkade right in the centre of Place de la Comédie. This is an oval shaped plaza, dominated by the Comédie opera house and is one of the largest pedestrian areas in Europe. We had lunch then set off to explore.

Place de la Comédie, Montpellier

First a quick stop at the toilette though. So, something I’ve never seen before…it’s a futuristic toilette right behind the visitors centre. We wait our turn 3 gals are ahead of us. Shelby and I are chatting, Justin finds another version but smaller around the corner from where we’re waiting and he and Max head off to use that one. The last gal comes out so I approach the booth and start reading the instructions, Shelby however steps directly inside the unit and this curved metal door closes and seals itself. I try hitting the “open door” button but it doesn’t open. Justin approaches and says did someone just get out and I said “yes” he says “oh, that’s not good” just as the Self Clean light on the unit comes on. I try prying the door open with my hands and yell at Shelby to get out as you can hear the unit start to groan and begin it’s sanitizing with my daughter inside. I hear a scream and then miraculously the door opens, out comes Shelby in tears. Thank god it was just tears as I thought for sure she was getting sprayed with chemicals and was going to come out drenched. She said she screamed because “I saw the toilet start to raise itself and then water was starting to fill the floor, I thought I was going to get sprayed!”, I didn’t bother telling her I thought so too. After we appropriately wait the time for the cleaning cycle to complete and survived Justin telling us we should have known better as we saw people come out that we should wait. But we didn’t pay attention and who thinks the toilette in the park is going to go all Star Trek on us!

Les toilettes à Montpellier.

We begin our stroll through the amazing old streets of Montpellier. It is so beautiful with a Roman feel to the city. We head towards their Arc de Triomphe, at the end of the 17th century, the king’s intendant decided to erect this triumphal arch, a copy of the gates of Paris, in honour of Louis XIV, built where one of the gates of the ancient rampart used to be.

Arc De Triomphe, Montpellier

Then to the Place Royale du Peyrou, which provides the setting for the mounted statue of Louis XIV, forming a stunning group of monuments, with the Arc de Triomphe, the Chateau D’Eau water tower and Saint-Clement aqueduct. The engineer of the aqueduct, Henri Pitot de Launay, drew inspiration for it from Pont du Gard to build the Saint-Clement aqueduct in 1754. It supplied drinking water to the city from the springs in the town of Saint-Clement. The Chateau D’Eau was created at the same time as the aqueduct in the 18th century, the water tower held the city’s water reserves.

Place Royale du Peyrou, Montpellier. Mounted statue of Louis XIV.

Chateau D’Eau water tower.

Saint-Clement aqueduct.

We promised the kids a treat so told them to be on the lookout as we headed to one more site without telling them this, as I think they had enough sightseeing. We arrived at La Faculté de Médecine. Montpellier was only two centuries old in 1181, when its Lord Guilhem VIII signed a surprising and far-reaching edict. He declared that anyone, regardless of religion or background, could teach medicine in Montpellier. Thus was born, at the end of the 12th century, what is today one of the oldest operating medical schools in the western world.

La Faculté de Médecine, Montpellier.

After such amazing historical sites we found the kids a treat back near the square, a plain old slushy just like at home. We convinced them to relocate to allow Justin and I a treat as well. We found a Cafe and I ordered a cafe noisette, which I had read was close to our Canadian lattes. It was a shot of espresso in a very small mug, even though I ordered a grand, with a side of steamed milk. It was good, not what I thought but still good. I might have to stick with the cafe au lait which is espresso with a splash of milk…I think.

We head home to attempt a bit earlier bedtime to try and get our days started a bit earlier. I realize we still have to cook dinner, the kids set off to the boulangerie, again, for a baguette. Justin takes over in the department of cooking and I get the kids set up with the water colours outside and hope our young friends from yesterday see us outside again.

Painting on the front step at the house.

We eat our dinner and are cleaning up and see outside the door Gaiton and the girl from yesterday, they came looking for us. Gaiton brought his 4 month old kitten and we all chat with Shelby translating most of what he is saying to us, she warms up to him and begins to exchange a few words. We tell him we are here for 4 weeks and he seems surprised, he’s probably thinking “why?”. But we are beginning to fall in love with this small town as are the kids, they regularly tell us so. We find out he plays football (soccer) and rugby and had practice today by the swimming pool fields. He tells us he has an almost 3 year old sister named Axelle and his cat which he brought on a leash is called Kata (I think). After he says he has to go we tell him we hope to see him tomorrow or rather Shelby does, he smiles and says yes. My heart swells that Shelby has exchanged phrases with this lovely small town boy from Servian and I wonder what tomorrow holds.