What has Pam been doing???!!!!

Hi All,

I haven't posted a blog for a while because I have been too busy enjoying mys
elf or taking photos or both!
This blog will probably recap a few earlier blogs, but there is so much to tell you.

Excursions
Firstly, I will talk about some of the excursions I have been on. The school provides 3 or 4 extra activities every week. On Monday's they do free trips to some of the historic buildings or museums in Montpellier itself. Wednesdays, they do cheap excursions or lectures around Montpellier based on food or cultural themes. Last week they did a cheese tasting and information evening. (It was very nice and tasty!) Thursday they usually do an evening excursion, sometimes to a restaurant other times to a tourist attraction eg the Planetarium. These are more social excursions. On Friday afternoons they always do a full afternoon tour to a tourist town or site in the region, but away from Montpellier. The first week was Nimes (which we mentioned in an earlier blog); the 2nd week was Sete, an historic coastal fishing town a bit further south, but this was cancelled due to unseasonal rain. Last week we went to St Guilhelm le Desert - a fabulous little mediaeval town from the 10th century up in the mountains about 45 min from Montpellier. Alan went to Nimes, but that is the only trip he has done because the commentary on all trips is all in French, and he doesn't understand it. I am understanding more each time and I am really enjoying them. I have done all the Monday excursions, some of the Wednesday ones and all the Friday ones.
Nimes
As we said earlier, Nimes was interesting and the Roman ruins are excellent. Apart from the amphitheatre built in the 1st century AD, there is also a famous Roman aqueduct called the Pont du Gard, which we didn't get to see because it is about 50km out of town and we did not have time. Alan & I plan to go back there in our own time. Nimes was nice in terms of ancient historic monuments, but as a town, we both preferred Montpellier, which has a far more interesting, attractive and vibrant town centre. Here are a few photos of Nimes including the amphitheatre, the fabulous Jardin de la Fontaines (Garden of the Fountains) built in the 17th century and a couple of streets, including one with a canal running down the middle (quite common in many French towns). Please note the funny blobs on the photos are rain drops because it poured with rain most of the time we were in Nimes!





St









Guilhelm le Desert
I did this excursion last Friday. It was a fabulous day - warm and sunny and several of my friends from class also attended, so I had lots of people I knew to talk to.
St Guilhelm to quote from one of our guide books "is no longer as remote as when Guillaume of Aquitaine retired here as a hermit in the 9th century. After a lifetime as a soldier, Guillaume established a monastry in the ravine above the river Herault." It is also part of the religious pilgrimage route of St Jacques de Compastella. It is in a spectacular setting and is a very pretty small village full of old buildings and narrow streets from the early middle ages. There is also a fabulous walk you can do on a very rough track right up above the town with fabulous views over the rooftops of the village and down the valley. Photos attached.
After walking up the hill and back down, my friend and I both decided to walk down to the river in the ravine, rather than sit in the town square and drink coffee. So we had a lovely 15 minute idyll sitting on the rocks dangling our feet in the cold water of the Herault River, which was this lovely aqua blue - green colour, very clear and very peaceful. Eventually we had to return to the bus for the trip back to Montpellier. For those of you who know how much I enjoy my bushwalking, you will hopefully be able to see from these photos why I enjoyed this day so much.
I did the walk with a great guy from my class called Ezequial. He is a 32 year old Argentinian production engineer, who currently works in Germany and speaks 4 languages - Spanish, Italian (his grandparents are Italian), German, English and is now learning French for work - paid for by them (Bosch is the company he works for.) I am very jealous. You will see from the photos why I have decided to run away with him and leave Alan!!!!! (Only joking - he actually returned to Germany on Saturday, but we do plan to keep in touch).
The other girl in the photos is a Japanese student from our class called Risa or Lisa (depending on who she is talking to!)




































































Carcassonne
Last Saturday, Alan, Ezequial and I went to Carcassonne. Many of you will already have seen Alan's short video on an earlier blog. This is truly an amazing city and a must see for anyone visiting this region in the south of France. It is a complete medieaval town with the full wall and castle in tact. The village within the walls still operates as a normal village.
The town was restored in the 18th century, but it is still basically in original condition (with the addition of modern conveniences such as running water and electric lights, and of course some fun & crass advertising, (photos attached) etc). You really do feel like you are in a Disneyland scenery prop at times, but it is an amazing feeling to walk around such an old and beautiful town. I highly recommend that you look up Carcassonne on the Internet to see what I mean. Photos attached.
There is also the "newer" town of Carcassonne outside the walls which is also very old and pretty. The Canal du Midi runs through the town centre which means there are some lovely scenic areas and like many French towns lots of open space and town squares etc.
I also forgot to add that all these towns (Montpellier, Nimes, Carcassonne & Sete) all have the most beautiful merry-go-rounds in the village square or prominent open space. All the merry-go-rounds are beautifully decorated with images relevant to the particular town and they all function perfectly, operating every afternoon. (photos attached)


















































































Minerve
Ezequial and I who went to Carcassonne by car (Alan went by train) also went there and back via a very scenic village in the mountains called Minerve. Once again an old village perched on the edge of a ravine with a great old bridge to enter the town.

























The mountains / hills in this region are very interesting. They are quite high, even though they don't look it and they are full of spectacular cliffs, ravines and gorges with little villages scattered along the edges of the ravines or down deep in the valleys. The vegetation is not that exciting with many familiar shrubs and bushes and lots of weeds. I really miss our gum trees, mountain ash, tree ferns etc. The trees and countryside here are very uninteresting in comparison, but the cliffs, buildings and views are spectacular! Mind you there are small and large vineyards dotted all over the countryside - and none of them are boring!
Sete
Today we decided to go to Sete. As stated above, Sete is a big fishing village and the port for Montpellier. It is situated on a hill and surrounding land between the Mediterranean Sea and a huge lagoon (etang) where they farm oysters. Think Williamstown x 50 + Anglesea or Lorne. Having said that, it is very pretty and as well as the lagoon, they have a canal system in the middle of town and all the fish restaurants are along the canals where the boats are moored, so in the evening there is a big buzz, you get lovely reflections of French style buildings and fishing boats in the water and you can eat lovely fresh fish (what more could you want?). You will see a photo of Alan taking full advantage of the fresh seafood and his opinion of it!
Sete also has a 12 mile beach along the Mediterranean Sea with believe it or not, very nice SAND (no pebbles!!). Even close to town there are little coves and beaches below the cliffs that are sandy - this is the first place with Australian quality beaches that I have seen in France! Alan and I even dipped our feet in the water of the Mediterranean - it was very cold!
You will also see a very typical French scene of boules and dogs - wherever there is a space the men play boules and people walk their dogs (Boules is definitely a man's game here! Occasionally one sees young men and women playing together on a social frolic, but 95% of the time it is men only, no women in sight). This photo was so typical I couldn't resist, even though technically it is not a great photo!
The highlight of Sete has to be the climb up to the top of the hill - very steep, but the views truly are 360 degrees and you can see an incredible distance and also look down on the fishing port, canals and town centre of Sete. Also on top of the hill is a funny little church, not much to look at on the outside, but the inside is quite special. Photos attached.














































































Lattes
Alan and I have also been busy doing our own travels. He has already posted a blog about our afternoon walking to Lattes - a very enjoyable day. He did forget to mention the snake we saw - quite long, but unfortunately we weren't close enough to get a good look. (We both like snakes)
This post has become quite long so that will do for excursions. I will post a 2nd blog to talk about French lessons, further impressions of Montpellier and some of the excursions within Montpellier itself.