A bit more time today; yesterday was basically a blur! Got up in the morning and breakfasted at the hotel. Then headed to the city wall (started by the Romans) for a nice walk. From there we went to the Cathedral, which is under major reconstruction. The parts that were open to view – especially the cloister (pictured yesterday with all the flowers) was beautiful. Back to the hotel to check out by noon…and a train to catch at 3:39 p.m. Had some wine on the placa and then had a nice, leisurely lunch. R had pasta in a cream sauce, and I had a salad with greens, walnuts, pistachio’s, two wheels of bruleed goat cheese all in a balsamic vinaigrette – it was delicious!
Taxi’d to the train station, and yikes, what a mess! We had noticed that things were a bit torn up when we got in, but wow – it’s practically demolished! They have some waiting benches outside, but the scaffolding actually covers up the train announcements! Very confusing! Finally we were told that the train would either come in on track 2 or 4 – which was fortunate, as they were right together! Train was about 10 minutes late, but arrived eventually and we climbed aboard. I’m not really understanding how the media (medium)-distance trains in Spain are quite lovely and roomy, and the long-distance train that we had was pretty bad! However, it did the job – got us in to France, and as the trains can go really fast in France, we made up time and arrived right on schedule in Montpellier, France. Saw those “sortie” signs and knew we were “home!”
Off the train and it was unbelievably less than a block to our hotel, the Royal Montpellier. Checked in and dropped luggage and immediately headed out in search of food. Montpellier, it turns out, is quite the place! It’s a BIG university town, and the central square was crowded with restaurants and lots and lots of people! (They also have a GREAT tram, just like the one in Strasbourg, that I would have loved to ride…just no time…) Found a spot on the street at one of the café’s. R ordered a chicken brochette that came with rice and veggies, and I ordered their chicken brochette “tapa” – which was curried and came with a killer chutney, as well as their tapa plate with mozzarella, pesto, sun-dried tomatoes and ham – everything was great! Back to the hotel around 10:30 p.m. I did the picture posting, and then R had some Caltech work to do. Not sure what time he got to bed, but I was unconscious very quickly!
This morning we headed to a patisserie for croissants and brought them back to the hotel, as the McDonald’s wasn’t yet open for coffee! Repacked everything and walked back to the station to pick up the rental car. Very easy to find. We have a lovely new Peugeot station wagon, with all sorts of bells and whistles – a picture “roof” that slides back, a built-in GPS – whew! Made it out of town and set our own GPS, Emmy, up for the trip to Le Bugue.
Now seriously, this is a bridge...
Made it in about 6 hours, via the beautiful bridge at Millau; arrived here about 2:30 p.m. Found the keys (NOT where they were supposed to be…) let ourselves in, and now we’re getting settled! Things all put away, I’m on my second load of laundry (surprise!) and then we went to explore the town. First off, went to the Hotel Royal, which very graciously allowed us to use their internet connection! (We’re going back there for dinner tonight.) Hopefully their hospitality will continue this week! From there, we wanted to find the supermarket, and low and behold, there is a HUGE Intermarche just on the outskirts of town! Got some supplies – baguette, ham, salami, cheeses, water, orange juice, wine … and now are back in the house, resting up a bit before dinner!
A couple of views of the downstairs of the house, as well as a couple from the hotel patio!
So, hopefully I’ll be able to get this posted with pictures! More later!
Au revoir!
m
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