Exploring the City

                                     I spent the next few days enjoying the sites and exploring the city. There are so many interesting buildings, shops, alleyways and any number of other things that Montpellier seems like somewhere that could be explored and enjoyed forever.

The saturday market was so cool with so much to see I completely forgot to take photos. The only one I got was this one of fresh pasta (the mushroom filled ones made for an awesome dinner) we also bought an excellent lemon meringue pie.

                                        

One of my favourite things about cities with history is I can be wandering down a perfectly normal street when I suddenly spot this.

                                           

An entire shop devoted to cheese, did I mention the only other thing they sell is a small selection of wine to pair with the cheese...? Gosh I love France

A shop devoted entirely to macaroons. And ice-cream. Heaven.

My first view upon stepping through an innocently small and boring door I would never have noticed had my lonely planet guide not suggested stepping through. 

I wandered in but saw no-one so started up the stairs, admiring the beautiful architecture all the while. There was even a well!

The upstairs floor was a small but interesting museum. Documents and artifacts from the era around the French revolution were kept in one room.

 

 Including a model of the Bastille and some lovely statues.

 

 In the central room was an incredible model ship. The ropes and masts were so intricate.

A very cool fireplace

Some truly hideous wallpaper

Recognize this from my last post?

The small medieval room was also extremely awesome. Overall it was a very cool, quirky and tucked away little museum. The fact that it was held in a beautiful house from the 1700s certainly helped, as did the live choir practicing church music in the room below- the faint sounds of chanting monks really made the atmosphere.

Shopping and Museum Fabre

The next day I decided it was high time I purchased some winter gear so I didn't turn into an icicle. There's something extremely boring about shopping by oneself, however I did manage to get it all done quite successfully. 

New shirt, new jeans, new jacket and new shoes!

I then decided to spend my afternoon at the museum, which although only comprised of art was a nice way to pass the rainy day.

The art was interesting, the museum was arranged chronologically so I enjoyed watching the changes from Neo-classicism to impressionism and so on.

This was one of my favourite things in the whole museum, simply because of how lifelike his face was

Its always the small details that interest me, not the huge overarching picture, but for example, how lifelike the pages of this book were.

A small modern section comprised of science fiction and computer game like graphics, this evil gremlin troll dude stood out to me as super awesome. Very Dragon Age. 

Montpellier

Over the next few days I finally made my way around Montpellier, as Colette only lives a twenty minute walk (at most) from the centre, I meandered my way there every morning, losing myself in the little alleyways and shamelessly window-shopping 

This part of the park above Jean Marc's house is super cool, it was once a central point for the medieval viaduct. 

Montpellier's arc de triomphe

The architecture in central Montpellier is very cool and just what one would expect.

I spent many hours taking in the sites and enjoying the much romanticized architecture.

Place  de la Comedie is pretty much the main square of Montpellier and is full of shops and restaurants. It is always bustling and good fun to be in as long as one is able to avoid the pushy people who wander the square trying to get you to sign petitions or donate money.

The Opera house -featured to the right of this photo, is the main building in the square and aside from the fountain draws the most attention. Overall I had great fun wandering the old streets of Montpellier. 

Train Journey and the Beach

The train to Montpellier was a very pretty journey, although long it was quite relaxing, and the view from the windows were great.

Leaving the mountains behind me

This made me think of Heidi 

After a long day of changing buses and trains I finally made it to Montpellier. My Uncle's friend Colette was there to pick me up, and she has been lovely to me ever since. Even if our main source of communication is hand gesturing and diving for the English/french dictionary. 

It was too late the first day of arrival to go exploring the city, and the next morning my uncle took me to the nearby beach. It was nice smelling the salt in the air and hearing the waves, I hadn't realized how long it had been since i'd been to the beach, but I've missed it. 

It was an extremely wild and windy day, the sand blowing in my face and the waves spraying my skin. I had to squint constantly. There were many surfers and kite surfers on the waves which looked like awesome fun and made me wish I had my own board with me. The waves weren't huge but they were steady, clean and breaking far from the shore.

After the refreshing beach walk we stopped at a cafe for coffee, although rather different from what I am used to, I do very much enjoy the typical french coffee. Even if I do dump entirely too much sugar into them.

We ended the day walking over to Jean-Marc's (my uncles) house, which was a nice short and scenic walk.

Weekend in the Alps

On Friday, the family's sisters au-pair Georgia invited me out for a drink in Courchevel, which sounded like a great plan so off we went. It was all very spontaneous and late at night, so I left a note and then we headed up the mountain.

It was too early in the season for much nightlife but the locals were cool, many of the bar workers were english, and Georgia knew them from the year before, therefore we spent a nice evening over beers and pizza.

We then drove further up the mountain to see the snow, lit up by ever changing colored lights, it looked beautiful. We were also the only people around which made running around like idiots playing in the snow even more fun.

It would have been the perfect end to the night except for upon being dropped back around midnight I made the fun realization that I was locked out. Luckily Georgia saved the day and I spent the night sleeping on her floor before getting up at half six in the morning so she could take me back before she started work. The only problem of course was it was so early I was still locked out, which resulted in very brisk walking for forty minutes around the village trying not to freeze to death. At least I took some pretty photos.

I knew I'd be able to laugh about it later (which I am now doing) but at the time it felt ridiculous wandering like a mad woman around a tiny alpine village at dawn, locked out of the house with snow all around. But as the saying goes, all's well that ends well!

France again!

Getting back to the alpine winter after the heat of Morocco was a fun shock to the system. I instantly developed a cold but aside from that have been enjoying watching the snow on the mountains creep lower and lower each day. (Check out the view from the living room!)

Plus the fire warms things up, crackling and popping away, adding atmosphere and warmth to the living room!

Although you can't really tell from the photo, it began to lightly snow yesterday-my first experience of snow falling! It was so soft and slow and quiet as it fell, gentle and unhurried. It melted before it touched the ground but was one of the most magical and peaceful things I've ever seen.

If it wasn't for the fact that it was utterly freezing and the hole in my shoe was allowing ice-cold water to get intimately acquainted with my sock, I would have stayed out in it forever. 

As it was, walking through the village to the silence of the snow, the smell of wood-smoke in the air, passing the alpine houses with the white mountains looming all around and the russet trees drawing my eyes to their red and gold, it was utterly magical. 

 This morning when I woke up it was to a heavy frost on the ground, beautiful. 

The day was finished off with just the type of food one wants to be eating on a cold winters day, Raclette! This awesome Swiss dish involves melting a special type of cheese in miniature pans under the grill that sits in the centre of the table, then you scrape the hot bubbling amazing cheese onto your plate and eat it with baby potatoes, ham and prosciutto. Yum!

Last Day in Morocco

On the last full day we had in Morocco we went to visit the beach which was actually quite fun, although the beach was nothing like I expected, it reminded me more of a desert.

It stretched on as far as the eye could see, barren, dry and hot. And in the distance a camel wandered around the sand. Very strange.

The children went on a donkey ride

 More camels on the beach

My favourite part of the day was building a sand-castle

 And then back to the swimming pool for a much needed respite from the blazing heat!

The owners had organized a lady to come and clean the house for us, and she also made us a lunch of traditional vegetable and meatball tajines; they were delicious. Thank you Zara! (And I'm sorry I didn't want to marry your son. No, not even for a thousand camels.)

The new house

After five days in the house we moved on to the second half of our trip and a house only about twenty minutes away from Essaouira, it even had internet sometimes!

We said goodbye to the old house and stopped by the city on the way to the new one.

Along the way we got sidetracked by a horse and cart and took a little ride around the village closest to our house.

It was a very bumpy ride, but actually quite comfortable with the padding on the seats. And it went faster than you would think!

We then made our way to Essaouira for shopping supplies and lunch. The city was just as bustling and bright as I remembered, and it was nice to be out.

Moroccan pizza does in fact taste rather different from normal pizza. It has an interesting blend of spices (although isn't spicy). I got the margherita.

We eventually arrived at the new house, and I discovered my super fancy nice bedroom. The only downside was having to keep the door shut all the time because of scorpions

The architecture of the house was very cool, with a huge open middle and the rooms ringed around the courtyard. And did I mention the pool?

The living room was also very large and stylish, and the nice thing was the rooms were all so large and airy that even with the doors closed the rooms stayed lovely and cool.

 Sunset by the pool