June 23, 2018
Rest day excursion to Montpelier
A trip to Sète is not complete without a trip to Les Halles, the main market. After stocking up on food and supplies, we headed over to Montpelier to spend the afternoon with Marc, one of my good friends and colleagues from my postdoc days in Montana. It was immediately apparent that Montpelier is a city with a sense of art and humor. From the whimsically painted tramways to the random artwork on buildings, it is clear why this is one of the fastest growing cities in France, and one especially attractive to younger people. We met Marc in the Place de la Comédie, the site of Opera Comédie, and headed off to lunch. I'd seen Marc only a few times since our Montana days in the late 1980's, yet we immediately connected in the way that good friends do. We were soon joined by Marc's wife Naomi, and had a wonderful lunchtime discussing science, politics, wolves and bears.
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After lunch, Naomi had to go meet some friends coming to town for a visit. Marc led us on a tour of his Montpelier - places meaningful to him as well as some iconic tourist sites. When I first met Marc, he described himself as "a French Tunisian Jew", and the first place he took us, the Mikve Medieval, resonated with his own personal heritage. In the 13th century, this mikve medieval was the site of a Jewish ritual bath of purification. Today, it's an historical monument whose exterior walls depict the importance of the rich Jewish cultural life that flourished in 12th century Montpelier, a city tolerant of Muslims, Jews, and Protestants. The tolerance of Jews and Muslims ended following the Lateran Council of 1215, also known in the Catholic Church as the 12th Ecumenical Council. I was shocked to learn that one of the edicts of the council was that Jews and Muslims had to wear a distinctive dress, or badge, to distinguish them from Christians. The medieval Jewish badge described on the Mikve Medieval in Montpelier is a double circle forming the letter O, analogous the the yellow star Jews were required to wear in the Nazi era.
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Louis XIV also left his mark on Montpelier. The Promenade du Peyrou is a large esplanade with an Arc de Triomphe and a statue of Louis XIV astride a horse. In line with the statue and Arc de Triomphe is a large water tower fed by the Saint-Clément aqueduct built in the 18th century to supply Montpellier with water, which resulted in a multitude of fountains in Montpelier.
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In more recent years, the growth of Montpelier has been spurred in part by the vision of it's former mayor, Georges Frêche, who envisioned a city of clean industries, science and the arts. To experience some of fruits of that vision, Marc took us by the Medical College and we met up with Naomi and friends at an art gallery exhibiting the work of one of their friends, Bob and Roberta Smith. A whirlwind spin through newer developments, including the library and aquatic center, revealed that Montpelier is not afraid to explore new ideas while sustaining it's historical values of tolerance and diversity.
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6 years ago