On Wednesday, October 10th, there was an orientation in Montpellier for all of the TAPIF/CIEP secondary assistants (of all the languages, including English, Spanish, Italian, German, even a couple Russian, Czech, Arabic, and so on), so Carmen, Violeta, and I decided to head to Montpellier Tuesday night, stay in a hotel, and see the city!
Moral of the story is that we LOVED it. It's a young city, in that it's a university city and there are lots of young people. (I guess technically it's also young for a big city in France because it doesn't have any Gallo-Roman/Greek history... according to Wikipedia, which is always right, you know.) Anyway, everyone we stopped to ask a question was helpful and happy. Narbonne is charming and I feel really lucky to be here, but it was fantastic to be in a legit city with some hustle and bustle.
I also got to meet a lot of the other assistants, some of whom are my Facebook friends, some of whose blogs I follow (see the list on the right!), and some of whom I'm even traveling with to Barcelona in a few weeks! It was good to get out and meet some new people... and it was the first time I spoke English for more than a few minutes since... well, since I was in Germany. (In fact, I hadn't spoken with an American since a couple we met in a garden the day Irene and I went to Salzburg!)
Here is the story of our aventure montpelliéraine, told in pictures... bien sûr!
Carmen and Violeta on our friend the TER
me and Arnaud 2, my GIANT sac à dos
(so giant he got named)
Ta-da! People. Everywhere!
pretty red doors, note the faces
ol' faithful!
buildings painted with murals to look like other buildings
view from under the Porte du Peyrou
...and then we showed up at the hotel we had researched/
called in advance (but not reserved as we don't have
our French bank cards yet)...
...and it was ADORABLE and we got the last (most expensive, surprise) room!
...with three beds upstairs
...and some somewhat terrifying (yet adorable) stairs
...and a big bed downstairs!
...not to mention a balcony overlooking the garden
...and a private bathroom WITH A BATHTUB
(the next morning I fit in a 10-minute mini bath... take what you can get!)
...and we were so excited that we stayed in the bathroom
talking for like 30 minutes. And when we realized that,
we decided we had to take (a lot of) pictures. Because we're girls.
...seriously. We were happy about our bathroom.
...for real.
Jardin des Plantes, France's oldest botanical garden
"Ceci n'est pas un tag" (This is not a tag/graffiti)
l'Arc de Triomphe de Montpellier
(older than its more famous counterpart in Paris;
built in honor of Louis XIV and finished in 1692)
statue of Louis XIV in the Place Royal du Peyrou,
as well as the Château d'eau (water tower) in background
Violeta and me in front of the Château d'eau
trois happy narbonnaises in the Place du Peyrou
l'Arc au coucher de soleil
a glimpse of la Cathédrale Sainte Anne
if only it were open... I'd have loved to go in
makin' our way to the Place de la Comédie
the Opéra Comédie, as in Place de la Comédie
Also, here's a video of the Place de la Comédie. But turn you volume down and excuse my AWFUL accent. I promise I don't always sound like that.
I think/hope.
our amazingly delicious meal... we each had a galette (savory meal crêpe,
pictured above) and shared a salad
...and then we all said we'd share one dessert crêpe... but instead, we all
got our own. What's more, we ate all of the six crêpes and the salad.
(As in, every bite. Cleaned plates.) It. was. amazing.
les trois portables et les trois grâces à la Place de la Comédie
precious <3
...and then later that night, we thought we'd call François Hollande to ask him a few questions about France. Only we couldn't. Because whoever designed our adorable hotel room put the phone behind the bed.
I mean, for real. Ça sert à quoi?!
Good morning, Montpellier! (on our way to orientation)
I'm not quite sure what's going on here, but I'm pretty sure I belong.
Lycée Joffre, the high school right next to our orientation
Place de la Comédie in the sunlight
the white tents are an open air clothing market
some more three graces/Opéra Comédie action
...and then, while we were having drinks with a few assistants from all over
the world and exchanging stories about our own cultures, some guys showed up in bras and party hats. Go figure.
The best part about orientation was hanging out with people from all over the world. Spain, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, the States, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, El Salvador, Barbados... so many countries were represented. I love meeting people with different perspectives, native languages, accents, and experiences from my own.
The least exciting thing about orientation was when we tried to leave Montpellier on the 7:16 train (it's a one-hour ride) and we found out there was an accident à personne, meaning that somewhere along the train track someone either committed suicide or fell onto the tracks. (Sorry. Not pretty. But apparently it happens.) Anyway, we were delayed 2.5 hours. We got moved from the TER to the TGV and even ended up having to eat dinner on board.
yet another improvised dinner in France
Despite the hassle of the delay, we were together. We had fun (we played hangman with English and Spanish words, but using the French pronunciation of letters), and I taught Carmen how to play MASH. We met some amazingly kind older people. One of whom, a man whom we'll call Jérôme, even drove Violeta and me home so we wouldn't have to walk 30 minutes home at 11:30!
In the end, we loved our little taste of Montpellier, and we definitely plan on coming back during some of our weekends! Montpellier, mon amour, I'll be back!
Montpellier, il me manque!
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