"And then there were two!" Greek Easter, May Day and more in Montpellier

There followed a run of cold and wet weather. so thoughts turned to cinema, local eating and TVMucho! We were still pursuing good music gigs, and we re-visited places visited during the family long weekend, but not much cycling and a lot of use of trams! In the old city we went out to find some "free art" and were m the point of giving up (venues closed or charging!) when we came across a small gallery with sumptuous paintings of beach scenes.  We spent a long time wondering where thus place was - but it seems the answer is his imagination! Delightful!

On the gastronomic front we had a trip to Palavas for a seafood lunch, ate at favorites like Hippopotamus, Brasserie Laissac, and local spot Patacrepe, but we also found a new local spot only open for lunch, and therefore useful on bad weather day: Chez Jules, where we had two excellent and great value meals. On the second occasion we were quite late, and considered ourselves lucky to have beaten the deadline when a party of nineteen appeared, consisting largely of teenagers, but also a few "minders". They turned out to be a team (we deduced via Monsieur Google to be from La Rochelle) competing in the televised youth national finals of  "Battle of The Year". After the girls had picked at  - and the boys had gobbled  - their lunch they went outside and we were treated to a demonstration of some fine street dancing!

With Easter over it was time for the first of the French May Bank Holidays:- on May 1st!! This is the most "closed" days of the year - there will be no public transport and no shops open - not even the bakers! Traditionally there are also lily-of-the-valley sellers, and workers' demonstrations.  This year the latter would be complicated by the Gilets Jaunes and Climate Change protesters! Ruth was suffering with a thick cold so Bob cycled into the city centre and watched what was going on. He said it was peaceful enough, but Greyrocks fails to understand what the populist GJ movement is about!

All our Saturdays in France have been touched by their actions, with "the kids" having stumbled on police water canons in preparation! On our final Saturday we set off - with dismal weather projections - to join Mama Stock in a park a little to the north of the city, but theoretically straightforward to reach by tram and a short walk, but we discovered the hard way that the trams were severely disrupted with re-routing to avoid the city centre. We ended up walking along tramlines and getting on anything that came along in hope! We made it to the site to find queues for everything - and then it rained to add to the cold wind! We had seen some interesting artwork and acrobatics, but didn't stay for the music, or return the next day!

Instead on the Sunday we met in Lattes (Bob bike, Ruth tram) and went for a Moroccan lunch in Port Ariane. Ruth walked back alongside the river and we  met again at Marché du Lez, where this time the jazz band was playing! Another case of "Nice!" In recognition of the occurrence of Greek Orthodox Easter we had both chosen lamb for lunch, and at Le Comptoir where we had been the previous day we had asked the Greek waiter what he would be doing - and he said "working"! As we passed on the day itself we wished him Καλό Πάσχα! [

We had revisited La Gazette on an evening when an Argentinian band was playing. We shared a platter of charcuterie and some wine- a good deal - but the place was so crowded we couldn't hear the music and didn't linger too long!

Of course there were films: this time just two at Utopia. They were "Ray and Liz",  and "Boy Erased": not exactly cheering!

The final days were rather lack-lustre as Ruth nursed her cold, but we began preparations for the October stay!