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
Dear Liza 