Tag: Montpellier

Into Toulouse

June 13

Dear Liza,

We had a long travel day getting from Montpellier to Toulouse. Our 1:05 train was delayed, then delayed again, then finally cancelled and a new one installed.

When the train finally arrived, it was old…I haven’t found a picture of it online to get a date, but it had been sitting outside for a while. The seats and tray tables were real metal, and the windows had curtains. There were only a few electrical outlets in each car, rather than one-at-each-seat in modern trains. And there was a definite wobble which pitched us back and forth as we walked up the aisle. This was vintage French train travel.

BUT we got free boxed dinners, since we had been delayed through dinnertime, and we got where we were going. We rode west from Montpellier along the coast, then cut into the hills past Carcassone, across the Canal du Midi, and into Toulouse.

The weather was cooler, which was a blessed relief, and we all felt a sense of “I’m gonna like it here!”

As we walked up the Rue Jean Jaurès towards our apartment, we passed neighborhood parties, fountains dedicated to Occitanie poets, shade trees, and gardens.

And by the time we had a salad and milkshake at the Café Albert and made our way up yet another antique stairway to our rented apartment, we were ready to be Home Sweet Home.

Another Adventure tomorrow, I guarantee it!

Love,

Grandma Judy

People and Patterns Part 2

June 6

Dear Liza,

Wandering through the Fabre Museum in Montpellier, the portraits were fun to look get to know on a personal basis. Their life stories, which I looked up if I could, were reflected in their eyes.

The other type of paintings I enjoyed were the modern pieces that focus on pattern. The problem is, I always forget to record the title and artist of these sort of paintings, so I can’t go look them up or find them again.

I like to try and find the balance that the artist was looking for, how the colors are related, and what I can learn from it. My quilts are much like these pieces, with blocks of different colors and textures working together to make an harmonious whole.

And then there is this piece, which is a very abstracted , but still representational. See the houses? The clouds? The boats?And the woman? This is a fun kind of painting… part riddle, part artwork.

Our day at the Fabre Museum was time well spent!

Love,

Grandma Judy

When in Rome….

Dear Liza,

As I learn more about Montpellier, I understand why it is laid out the way it is. Like many medieval cities, it had walls around it from A.D. 985 to 1628, for protection. Most medieval cities were also built along the rivers, for easy transport of goods and people. Think of Paris, London, and Moscow. Their rivers allowed them to grow and prosper.

But the river closest to Montpellier, the Lez, is notorious for flooding. This area gets most of its rain in just a few weeks in the late fall, and the river has flooded many times over the centuries.

In order to keep the city safe, engineers have figured out how to keep the river in its place, while still using the area when the weather is good.

When visiting the shopping area called The Polygone, we accidentally discovered Montpellier’s beautiful solution to urban flooding. It’s called Les Echelles de la Ville, the Staircases of the city.

This is how it works. The Lez River, in the dry months of summer, is only a few feet deep and about ten to twenty feet wide. It is a narrow, flat canal passing between concrete walls.

Above the walls, reached by steep steps, are newly built cafēs and restaurants. More stairs up from there, the open, grassy Place d’Europe provides dog walking space.

Above that, about fifty feet above the river, is where the development starts. Offices, shopping malls, public pools, are all well above what might be dangerous flooding.

This development was completed in the 1980s but has all the earmarks of Ancient Rome. Arches, wide arcades, symmetrical open areas with lines of trees, and copies of Roman statues are all over. It feels almost Disneyland-ish in its dedication and exaggeration of the style (if Disneyland had a Roman Land).

As we walked through an air conditioned mall and took convenient, well designed escalators down to the river and then back up, I appreciated what a clever flood control solution this is. The liability of steep river banks had been turned into a comfortable series of stairs, creating long views and spaces for Framer’s Markets and sports activities.

So when the floods come, nothing is really damaged.

Clever people!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Exploring Montpellier

June 2

Dear Liza,

We are settling in to Montpellier pretty well. It is hotter than we are used to, so we try and get all our exploring done by 3:00 in the afternoon, then rest and do art during the hottest part of the day.

We started with the Travel Advisor list of “Things to do in Montpellier”, and found that most of them are right in our neighborhood!

The Place du Comédie is a wide open public square, surrounded by shops and cafés and with a fountain in the middle. Called The Three Graces, it has three marble women dancing above a lumpy rock where some marble cherubs are hiding, which is above squirting fountains and a pool. As you can see from the picture, the buildings surrounding the square are classic French architecture and very pretty.

Following the public square around a corner, we found the Esplanade Charles de Gaulle, which is a wide pedestrian walkway, shaded by dozens of plane trees. Benches line the area and fun blurpy fountains squirt up out of the sidewalk. It is a fun place to hang out on a hot afternoon, staying cool and being with friends.

In the oldest part of the city, which was built in the 1400s, the streets are still laid out in their higgledy-piggledy curves, not a grid pattern like we usually do today. I think this is what Paris must have looked like before Baron Haussmann did his urban renewal in the 1800s, creating the wide boulevards.

We have seen lots of places we will got back to and explore this book and toy store looks intriguing….

And the fine arts museum.

We’re expecting thunderstorms and heavy rain tomorrow, which will make a nice break from all this heat! So we’ll be inside, doing art and writing instead of galavanting all over.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Hello, Montpellier!

June 1

Dear Liza,

After a long day of towing our giant suitcases across Lyon, onto trains and boosting them into overhead shelves, a train ride that included meeting Bianco the traveling cat and his two dads, then lifting the bags down and hauling them a few blocks through sunny Montpellier, we are settling into our new city.

Montpellier has a very different feel from Lyon. Hotter and more humid, of course, but also more casual, less business-oriented. Almost nothing is open on Sunday, and Monday is about half-open. It’s a smaller city with slow-moving ground level trams instead of a zippy underground metro.

Walking around, I use the GPS on my phone a lot.

The twisty narrow streets get me turned around and I don’t know I’m lost until it dawns on me that I’ve seen that fountain before.

Close to our apartment, we have seen parts of the city walls built in the 1400s, statues erected in the 1700s, and contemporary Banksy murals, only slightly ‘defaced’.

Once I get my bearings and organize my thoughts, I’ll tell you about the history and life of this city.

Love,

Grandma Judy