A French Geography Lesson by a German

Lots of Santas in France - skinny ones too!

After my siesta in Montpellier, France I headed out for a drink with Nicole.  I told her about the Irish bar I had been to, and we ended up finding a different Irish bar called Fitzpatrick’s.  This bar was much busier than the other one, but it was later in the day.

The good news was that this bar had a pool table!  Bad news was it was across the alley in a lonely little room that the bartender would give you the key for.  So we decided to stay in the bar where all the people were.  We drank hard cider and chatted with the different bartenders.

 

One awesome thing in Europe is you can get these mini glasses of beer.  Sometime you just want a half pint instead! 

Notice the Frosty the Snowman chugging a Guinness!

While sitting at the bar the bartender said that a guy down the bar wanted to buy us drinks.  I was surprised, but told the bartender to go ahead and bring me another cider.  The guy was in a military uniform and he came over to talk.  He spoke perfect English, was from Germany, but was serving in the French military. 

We chatted with him for a while about his life story and about our travels.  At one point, I stumbled over my geography so he picked up a coaster and started ripping little pieces off the edge.  I was laughing and asking what he was doing?  He just told me to hold on.

He took a pen and started drawing in cities and then finally held it up for us to see. 

He had made France!  The coaster looked a lot like France on a map and he put the cities in for perspective.  It was very clever and helpful.  I still have my map of France. :o)

Eventually we headed back to the hotel, so we could get up early and figure out how to get to Spain.  

Walking About Montpellier, France

I woke up excited to be in France! I quickly got dressed and ran down to the square to find some espresso and a real French croissant with chocolate of course.

After munching down a chocolate croissant, I found a little visitor center in the square and luckily the guy working there spoke some English. He gave me a map of the city and circled the historic areas and landmarks for me.

Plaza de la Comedie - Trolley and Opera House

I walked down the main road in the historic shopping area. It was a Saturday and the streets were busy with people doing their Christmas shopping. This whole area next to the Plaza De La Comedie is pedestrian only for the most part so it was quite a pleasant area to wander around. I was enchanted by the winding streets and shops.

Shopping district, with the Christmas tree on the plaza in the distance.

I found an indoor market and went inside to gawk at the freshly butchered pigs and chickens on display. It was a bit bloodier than I'm used to, so I left quickly and moved on my way.

French Meat

As I walk along Rue Foch, I spotted an arch like the one in Paris. I got excited and quickly walked up to the Arc de Triomphe. It was beautiful and went over the road, so cars drove underneath it. I saw a school group going inside to be taken up to the roof. I thought about sneaking up with them, but it would have been kinda awkward, so I moved on.

Arc de Triomphe

Across the street directly ahead was a beautiful park called Promenade du Peyrou with gravel walkways and perfect fenced in squares of grass. I walked about the trails admiring the terraced view of the city in a park with trees and lamp posts in perfect rows. In the center of the far end of the park is a tall stone columned structure with a large reflecting pool on one side. On the other side of the structure is a beautiful vista of the more modern section of the city with an elevated aqueduct shooting out from the park running through the city.

Promenade du Peyrou

This park would have to be the closest I would come to walking through the famous gardens of Versaille on this trip. Sigh...

Kitty doesn't like bird on his nose!

I decided I was thirsty and it was time for lunch so I headed back the way I came and sited a bar with the Delirium pink elephant as it's logo. There was a nice shaded patio with lots of tables, but I was getting chilly so I sat at the bar inside and spoke the common language of beer names with the bartender. I ordered a Leffe and the bartender went back outside to read his paper, smoke a cigarette, all while sipping on a coffee.

After writing in my journal and enjoying my lonely Leffe, I wandered on and found myself in a beautiful square with a church called Saint Anne and directly across the square was an Irish pub called O'Carolan's. It looked welcoming so I stepped inside. The bartenders were all Irish and therefore spoke English which made me very excited. I became quick friends with the two bartenders working, well the older one was nice, the young one just annoyed me.

I asked for food, but they said I would have to go next door and bring something back. So I went next door and of course no one spoke English so I miraculously ended up with a vegetarian sub, with sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, artichokes, and onions. I ate my sandwich at the bar and talked to the bartenders about my travels, while all the patrons had their eyes glued to a rugby game on the TV.

Saint Anne

The young bartender got annoyed with me and started a sentence with “, You Americans come over here with your checklists...” Blah, blah, blah... And that was my cue to get my check.

I realized I was late anyways to move my stuff from the king room to a double back at the hotel... so I quickly found my way back. But I was disturbed by the guys attitude at the bar and it bothered me the rest of the day. Particularly because I hadn't really been using a checklist, unless you count an itinerary of cities a checklist... but I know there are far more organized tourists than me.

Tourist

I wrote it off as a case of someone who hates their life and needs to make a change...

Cote d’Azur

Cote d'Azur

We woke up early in Rome to head to the airport.  We had tried to buy cheap plane tickets to Nice online but it wasn’t working, so we were off to buy them in person at the airport. 

Turns out, this is not the best option, because the tickets cost more at the counter.  The girl at the desk apologized but explained there was nothing she could do.  So we each paid more than double the online price and headed to security for our gate. 

When it was time to board, we walked out onto the tarmac and boarded a little shuttle bus that took us to our Blue Panorama plane, which is a lot like Southwest.  As soon as we got off the bus, people ran to the two entrances at the front and back of the plane to board.  The seating was first come, not reserved.  But finding a seat together was not an issue.

It’s a very short flight from Nice to Rome… less than an hour, but with great views of Italy’s coast and islands in the Mediterranean.  I sat in a window seat on the eastern side of the plane.

When we arrived in Nice, it was very warm.  The sun was out and there was steam coming off the runway because it had recently rained.  The Nice airport is on the water and again you have to just walk across the tarmac to get inside the airport.  We found the bus to the train station and were on our way.

The bus drove along the coast and I understood why it was called the Cote d’Azur!  There were palm trees, white sandy beaches, rocks, and beautiful blue water.  I couldn’t stop staring out the window. 

Originally we had planned to go to Monaco for one night, but changed our plans to save money in France.  I’m glad we did, because of the surprise additional cost of the flight.  So we caught a train to Montpellier where we had a reservation that night.  Again, I walked down the aisle of our car taking pictures out the windows of the beautiful coast. 

View of a French vineyard from the train.

View from the train.

We arrived in Montpellier after dark with no map or idea of  how to get to our hotel.  We asked some girls, but no one speaks much English in France.  Luckily they understood some of Nicole’s Spanish and pointed us towards a cyber café so we could look it up. 

The French people in the cyber café were awesome!  None of them spoke much English either, but they helped us pull up a Google map and were arguing in French about the best way to go.  Finally, after all coming to agreement on where to go, we headed off towards the Plaza de la Comedie, which was only a few blocks away.  Our hotel was called Hotel de la Comedie, and considering that the plaza it’s on is very central to the city and well known, I’m not sure why the guys in the cyber café took so long to give us directions.  But whatever, we made it! 

Montpellier Christmas Festival

We were happy to find a very busy and fun Christmas Festival on the plaza.  We quickly checked into our hotel on the plaza and headed back out to explore the wonders of a European Christmas Festival. 

Seafood boat.  Oysters, Mussels, Shrimp, Prawns!

There were lots of drink choices… I started out with a glass of champagne and talked with the French man in broken English about how I had just arrived.  He welcomed me to France and another drunk French customer gave me a toast in all French and I have no idea what he was saying.  I smiled and nodded and drank up.  I was enjoying France already!

I moved on and had a warm mulled wine.  I tried the mulled wine from every stand to see which was best, but they were all good!  I had a shrimp cocktail from a seafood stand.  The most popular seafood dish was the soup, but I love shrimp and can’t pass them up.  I had a nutella crepe for dessert.  I watched the lady pour the batter on the hot iron circle and spread the thing layer for my crepe.  And she loaded it up with nutella.  Oh man it was so warm and gooey and delicious!  Let’s not think about calories now, you’re in France!  I kept telling myself that…

Nutella Crepe - Nummy!

There was a dance tent with a live band covering American rock songs from the 50’s.  I enjoyed watching the French people dancing the twist to Woolly Bully and singing along.   Eventually, I was too full to eat, drink, or be merry any more… It was time for bed.