February Travels: Montpellier, France

Salut my friends.

So two weeks ago, I had my third two-week vacation. Go France! And it was a whirlwind vacation, but easily the best vacation (or should I say holiday?) of my life. I haven't been on many holidays, mind you, but even so, it was just really amazing. I went to Montpellier, Carcassonne and Toulouse with my roommate Emma and our friend Helena. Then I went to visit Berenike, a dear friend I met while studying abroad in Lyon, in Heidelberg, Germany and finally I met up with more friends and fellow assistants, Becca, Charlotte, and Steven, in Prague. I am going to break it up into smaller chunks because it's just too hard. So one city at a time! 

I have also decided that I am going to post all the pictures but only talk about the highlights and fun stories that way it is a better snapchat of my time.

Firstly, on February 6th (the beginning of vacation), Helena, Manu, Emma and I left for Montpellier, with Helena driving. Montpellier is a city in the south middle of France, about two hours from Toulon. We spent two nights there and about three days and we stayed in an AirBnB, which I really recommend in Europe. It's much cheaper than hotels and more comfortable than hostels. Plus, if you reserve a full apartment, you often have your own kitchen and TV and such so it's a little like being home.

There's Toulon (in the southeast) and Montpellier (in the middle of the southern coast)

Anywho, the first night we met up with Manu's friend from Bologna and he showed us around a little. We had a delicious dinner of Lebanese food (my first time eating it!) and went to a cool beer place, that reminded me of the Bay with all of its IPA choices.

Taking an evening stroll through Montpellier

Basically Frankenstein's castle 

Elephant themed bar called Le Rebuffy had the cutest teapots

Lebanese food: lamp, chicken, and beef skewers with yogurt and rice 

Friends! 

Looking a little ruffled from the rain, but Emma and I 

The next day we wandered around the city and saw what intrigued us on the map. My favorite parts were the Jardin des Plantes (a peaceful botanical garden that was managed by the university), watching these really animated group of boy dancers act/dance a never-ending stream of snippets of various songs at Place de la Comédie, and the Musée Fabre, which was free as well.

One of the many universities: those statues are busts of famous law-related people

Because it can't be a French city without a carousel.

Hanging in Montpellier with EMma. (so clever, i know)

Rondelet's house: "Rondelet hosted François Rabelais here on Sept. 15th, 1530" (approximate translation)

Palais de Justice

Loved the winding streets. 

Mini Arc de Triomphe 

Beautiful blue skies.

Promenade de Péyrou

Me, Emma, Helena and Manu

Promenade de Péyrou

Cool stained glass.

We all slipped a secret in this tree of secrets.

This explains the tree, which is the oldest one in the Gardens (400 years old). It is meant to be a "wishing tree" or a "mailbox for lovers." So you put your most secret desires on a piece of paper and hide it in the tree.

Emma's favorite creatures are snails!

A really lovely day for a walk in the gardens.

We found a cat!

Bamboo with more love secrets carved into it.

"Judas Tree"

Again, this is another old tree in the gardens. It is called the "Judas tree" because it was thought that Judas hung himself from this type of tree after he betrayed Christ. Rather an eerie history for a tree.

Modern art.

A painting of a room in the Louvre, the Grand Gallery. So meta. 

Really beautiful colors. Musée Fabre

Place de la Comédie 

Antigone: a neighborhood that has a ton of buildings in the Roman-style of architecture

And, the next day we set off for Carcassonne around 8:30 a.m. I liked Montpellier. It was beautiful weather when we were there and it was a much more young place than Toulon with a lot to do. Lots of fun restaurants and bars. My favorite bar that we went to was a place called Le Rebuffy (recommended by our AirBnb hosts) and it was a bar that was elephant-themed and there were board games that you could play for free. It just seemed like a fun place to hang out if I lived in Montpellier. You really can't go wrong with vin chaud and Monopoly.

My favorite picture of the city. The grooviest tram flanked by stunning buildings and blue skies.