November 6, 2011
Around Montpellier, no cycling: Sunday and Monday, Nov. 6 and 7
WEATHER: mostly cloudy, some sun, NO RAIN!
We were glad to have two full days in Montpellier with no cycling and were delighted that no rain fell on either of our days off. Our cycling shoes had been so saturated that it took the whole time for them to dry. Our Ortlieb panniers and rack pack were terrific, though. Nothing inside them had gotten wet at all on Saturday's ride-an excellent test. Our pleasant small hotel was located about a kilometre from the old centre, and we walked about 15 kilometres each day back and forth and up and down through the city which was quite spread out and built on two hills.
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We liked Montpellier. It is a university town (one of the oldest universities in the world) with a law school and the oldest medical school in France, and we saw students everywhere. There had been no Roman presence here, and most of the ornate buildings around the huge Place de la Comédie were built in the 17th and 18th century. The postmodern planned community of Antigone, between the old centre and the river, was designed in 1979 by the Catalan architect, Ricardo Bofill, in a neo-classical style. It was interesting to walk through, with its crescent shaped low rise buildings containing mainly low income housing, public facilities and local shops.
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We sampled various restaurants in the area including Sunday lunch in a busy festive riverside bistro, and a brochette place off the main square which served an assortment of meat and fish on skewers. In spite of all the walking, the two days felt very relaxed and DRY!
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