Sette & Montpellier - the highs and lows

We had our first real early start (if you count 9am as early) this morning – mainly because we had to check out of the campground by 9am.

On our way towards Montpellier in the Languedoc region of France we stopped off at the port town of Sete. Mum and Dad had been here last year and recommended it, and it was certainly a nice pitstop on the journey.

The beaches of Sete

Dave once again braved a swim, but i chickened out and only got in up to my ankles – the water here is far too cold for my liking (even Dave admitted it was chilly).

Brrrr.... I mean oh what a refreshing temperature

We indulged instead at the local patisserie and had a massive piece of flan au chocolat – or chocolate tart for those non-French speakers. It was delicious!

Yummm!

After a bit more of a walk around and watching the local lifeguards practice a rescue – the victim definitely would have drowned if they were on an Australian beach, it was back on the road to Montpellier.

Unfortunately Montpellier didn’t boast any camp grounds and so we were forced to stay about 7km away in the small village of Lattes. Even once we got to Lattes a lot of the campgrounds were full with families on summer holidays and most weren’t really geared up for tents and campervans but more for families staying in small cottages/cabins.

We were forced to accept our fate staying at the Spanish inspired  Camping le Camarguais in what could only be described as a carpark with an electricity post – bonus! At the time of writing this (12:30am) we were hanging out in the dark, backing onto the central swimming pool listening to a house remix of the Pirates of the Carribean theme song played on the loudest setting of the sound system + steroids! We went over to check on the party as it sounded promising but all we found were kids in the pool that apparently closed at 7pm with 4-5 guys drinking and smoking around the pool – the music is cranking but the party is lame L. Needless to say that we didn’t get much sleep at Camping le Camarguais!

Le shite.... Camping at Camping el Camaguais

Keeping ourselves amused with self tattoos

Once the music stopped we did manage to get some sleep but were then woken by the heat of the morning sun and forced out of bed early. Next the fun of Camping el Camarguais continued with a freezing cold shower (aptly named douche in French – these people were douches!) including some creative hair washing to ensure i didn’t freeze to death! I complained about the douches but apparently they were working well and in very good order... whatever...Douches!

On a more positive note we headed out of the shite campground to explore Montpellier. First stop was the tourist information centre to get a map – essential for any town.city sight seeing as well as some info on Le Tour which would be stopping by at Montpellier the next day. While we were there we also found some alternative campsites (unfortunately we had pre-paid 2 nights at Camping le Camarguais – ps if ur wondering why I am saying Camping le Camarguais so many times its because Google picks up on the amount of times a word/phrase is in a document and then when someone searches for it this blog will hopefully come up and scare them away, saving them a lot of pain and heartache!). ... Back to Montpellier... I also made some friends with 2 rather wet Frenchmen celebrating a friend’s bucks weekend – I am still not sure if they were wet from a beer shower or swimming in the local fountain. All I know is that I have beautiful eyes and Dave has beautiful Oakleys and together our children would be beautiful...



Opera Comedee

 

Next we went out in search of lunch. We found a cute little restaurant in Place de Notre Dame because the food looked and smelt great  we had to stop! Melon and Jambon salad, fish skewer with saffron rice ad areally yummy chocolate Sunday called a Dame Blanche – in case you ever want to try it.

Dave having a good ol' sniff

With our stomaches full it was back to sightseeing again. Frist stop was the Abbe Sainte Ursule – an old Abby (nunnery) turned women’s prison, turned dance museum – an interesting transition i’d say. Next we continued down the twists and turns of the old city coming to the centre –the Place des Martyrs de la Resistance.

The Palace of Justice

One of the windy streets of Montpellier - very cute

From here it was straight up the Rue Foch to the Palias de Justice and Arc de Triumphe (every French city needs one!). From here we crossed into the Place Royale du Peyrou to see the Aquaduct and central monument – aka cover for the gigantic watertank for the city on the hill top.

Le Arc d Triumphe - Montpellier's version

The watertank cover monument... I'm not sure what it is actually called or meant to be other than that...

The Roman Aquaduct

We slowly made our way back through the cute little streets with all of their shopping treasures and ended up back at the Place de la Comedie – site of the Opera Comedie near where we had started.

Shopping Montpellier style

In search of toilets we went into the Polygon which was a multilevel shopping centre only to find that to use the toilets you need a season pass. As there was no-one to pay we had to just hold on!

Lastly it was through the Antigone with its very Olympic vibe and back to Mulder to drive us back to the crappy campground – Camping le Camaguais. We decided to make use of the pool and hung out until 8PM (1 hour after close when they kicked us out) – at least we got some enjoyment from the place!