Montpellier, Did I mention that.......?

Well we broke ranks, acted out of character, deserted the camp and actually took a guided tour of Montpellier in English! After 8 weeks here, we finally weakened and did it.

As you would expect, there were many surprises and new adventures and it was very worth while.

More and more, I think Montpellier is similar to Melbourne, in that it has gone through periods of relative obscurity. Like Melbourne, Montpellier has few significantly identifiable tourist attractions. It is surrounded by cities, towns and hamlets all loaded with Roman ruins and Middle Age relics like Carcasson and Arles, but it has no Roman ruins of its own, as it did not start until the 9th or 10th century. In fact the city is the attraction, and is thus ignored by most tourists.

We have noticed very few English and American tourists here, while the neighbouring towns are loaded with them. At least the attractions and cafe's are.

So back to our guided tour. We were taken across the oval city "square", through the non existent wall into the old city. We were "educated" on the boring and pretentious Parissienne architecture around the square that we loved so well. We were told how the city was originally a Protestant stronghold, for which the army placed an encampment nearby so that they could protect the undesirables inside. This is why the area between the city and the river stayed vacant for so long. It was a military camp, complete with shooting range, so no-one went there. Today, it is a modern residential sprawl, and threatens to take over as the population centre. Montpellier (like Melbourne) has recently become very attractive and has droves of people arriving every month. They are not tourists, they want to stay. Remember that it is only 10 km from the Mediterranean, and they are building a new marina nearby so that it can be reached by sea.

We learnt that Montpellier started out as a centre of medical research, and despite many periods of varied fortune, is still the home of Medical and Law Universities.

We also learnt that in the Middle Ages Montpellier was second only to Paris in size, even though it wasn't part of France in those days. Now it is the eighth largest city; contains 240,000 people and 60,000 students (can you tell the difference?).

Onward into the old city, where the history is rich and astonishing. We see narrow cobblestoned, medieval streetscapes with house fronts of the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Underneath them it is older still.

We read a plaque written in the original Occitain language of the area, and realised that it has a Latin origin just like the modern French we don't know, but it has a special place in the hearts of the locals here. Don't you love spelling "west" as Ouest. It make sense to me!?!

You've seen our photos of the large park near our place, called Place Peyrou. We have been asking around about the person called "Peyrou" as he appears to be somewhat obscure. Well, it turns out that Peyrou is not a person at all. The word is an Occitain word for "top of the hill".

Montpellier, slightly inaccurately, professes to be on the road of the original pilgrims of the Compastella Santiago. It is however the birthplace of St Roch. He was a pilgrim, but also a healer and samaritan who suffered from the plague himself. He helped lots of people and returned home penniless, so they slapped him in jail where he died (Thatcherites!). Now they celebrate him in grand style every year.

We visited the Jewish quarter and went into the ancient Mikve (ritual bath for women only), where Pam took some photo's - a surprise to me!. It was more surprising to know that they only discovered this medieval bath, still with natural spring water in it, because in 1995, the people renovating the 17th century house that had been built over the ruins of the medieval synagogue complained of dampness and problems with humidity! When they decided to use the basement to store things, guess what they found!

We went to the top of the Arch de Triumph and looked across the city and the surrounding countryside. Very nice. There is video footage which may get on the blog one day.

It is amazing to hear stories of communities which go back centuries, and to hear about houses which were modernised(!) in the late middle ages, and redeveloped in the 17th & 18th centuries, and to hear about streets which were included into houses by wealthy businessmen hundreds of years ago. It makes you feel privileged to be there.

I've only scratched the surface in this post, as I predicted while we were walking. It is impossible to impart the atmosphere and the history. You may pick up that I recommend Montpellier as a place to visit, and you may even notice that it should be done soon, as changes are afoot.

That's enough for my rambling. Please make comments or ask questions or send omelettes.