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| "Will it never stop?" |
Greyrocks wanted a fair trial. How would we find a protracted stay in the city? So a bit of bad weather would help decision making! But ten days like this was rather overdoing it! The rain had been forecast, but seemed unlikely as we entered the second weekend, but decided that if we were to
explore the historic centre on foot we had better do it soon! A sunny Saturday meant the area was very busy, but we spent hours following a route suggested by a map from the tourist office which covered narrow streets, quirky shops, numerous squares and carefully maintained monuments. We agreed it was strange that we had been visiting the city for so many years and had not yet done thus!
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| The Historic Centre |
As we went round we spotted - for later use - the two British pubs:- The Shakespeare, which is part of a chain of a dozen
Charles Wells houses across
French cities, and
The Beehive, which is open all day and serves food. We stopped for refreshment near the
Jardin des Plantes and found a copy of the definitive
live music guide, which led us to yet another disappointment that evening! Le Dome is a brasserie we like and there was supposed to be a Ray Charles tribute act. There wasn't - but we had a good meal, and the booklet advertised a community event next day in one of the residential areas where Neil Conti and the Lazy Sundaze would be playing in the early evening. So -after a late sort-of Sunday Lunch we took the No 1 tram out towards the
quartier of Cevannes, and walked to the park, where we probably the only non-French citizens, and there was a delightful family and community feel.
Far from having to sit on the ground we had seats with a stage view, and far from long queues for a drink, it was really efficient and cheap, based on
jetons. The band started on time and -as at Pleine Lune - played funk solidly - without any vocal input - until 7 pm, by which time the sun had gone and we were getting a bit cold. So it was home again in no time! Bob was most impressed by the eco-loos. which for the gents consisted of outdoor dustbins filled with sawdust!
On Monday the rain started! We had plenty to do - and were cooking at home that day - but we made plans for wet weather things to see us through. First, there would be a trial run at the
swimming pool. Two tram stops away is the impressive
Piscine Olympique Antigone. We had dropped in during the first week and decided that the 10 lane 50 metre pool was not going to meet our limited needs; but later research revealed there is - upstairs - a
piscine ludique (leisure pool) which would! Its hours are a bit short, there are the hat and shorts rules common in France, and the water is not as warm as one would like, but we get in for EUR 2.90 each - without proof of age! - which can't be bad. (During the month we went three times with varying amount of space for continuous swimming as they have one or two areas dedicated to exercise)
A good standby in bad weather is a film in
version original. Trips to Diagonal in the city centre have featured in this blog repeatedly, and we went there early this time on as it poured and then a second time (using our discount from the restaurant opposite - now called
Tchoutchou); but we then discovered a new venue, which has become an instant favourite: -
Utopia in the university area. Each of the three
salles is decorated like an old drawing room, but is very comfortable.
The programme changes frequently, and we went three times in a fortnight!
That's five films seen in the whole month:
and not a dud amongst them!
Greyrocks decided if MTP is to figure in our planned stays we should investigate the network of Brits who live here, and this led us to
Inter Nations , which has thousands of members in the city from not just UK, but many other nations. We were invited to a social evening in a very pleasant brasserie in the historic centre. There were about eighty people in total, and we talked with folk from Mongolia, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada and Czecho, as well - of course - as France and UK. We came away much heartened after sharing
"Bremoans" with creative younger people who have got out! It also led to a further evening out later (see next post)
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| Shine On! |
Thanks to the aforementioned
Mama Sound guide we saw out the rainy period with an afternoon/evening of great
live music, and discovered two interesting new venues. First we went to
Bistrot Sainte Anne which was holding a wine festival all day with live jazz in the early evening. It was pretty crowded, but dry for the moment and we sat outside with some good wine introduced by a trader born in St Albans(!), some very acceptable food, and a chat with a Swiss couple. The jazz was fun, but came to an end, and we couldn't carry on paying the price of the wine, so we set off for Part 2 - a French Pink Floyd tribute band named Shine On. (Not to be confused with a British one of the same name!) This was at a place we have been passing frequently as it is on the main road to Lattes. Pub Le O'Liver looked dreadful from the outside, and although sitting right next to the tram-line it is on the longest stretch between stations we know! So we arrived after the start of their first set and left before the end of the last. They were excellent, and the place is not as bad as it looks! We got some "interesting" looks as Ruth enthused! Having left without hearing two of our favourites, but concerned about the hour, we decided to walk in the city-wards direction and it was a long one all the way home - getting a bonus on R's Fitbit!
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| Some horseradish would be nice! |
Sunday - and particularly Monday - were disgusting and kept us in our temporary
chez nous most of the day! Our Sunday roast was taken out at
La Boucherie near the airport. This was achieved by a quick dash out and back on the tram. The meal produced take-away meat to get us through the drenching of Monday!
Earlier we had the excitement of being
en panne! It was Friday so we were due for a trip out to the supermarket for shopping with Yvette. We also planned - in spite of the weather - to go to the seaside. But Yvette was having nothing of it!The battery was as flat as the proverbial pancake, We had to invoke the AA breakdown service and they sent out a local "van and man" to save us (and challenge Ruth's French).
The weather improved on 18th - giving a final ten days for Greyrocks in Montpellier.
Far from having to sit on the ground we had seats with a stage view, and far from long queues for a drink, it was really efficient and cheap, based on jetons. The band started on time and -as at Pleine Lune - played funk solidly - without any vocal input - until 7 pm, by which time the sun had gone and we were getting a bit cold. So it was home again in no time! Bob was most impressed by the eco-loos. which for the gents consisted of outdoor dustbins filled with sawdust!
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