A fine and fancy ramble to the zoo

The days are beginning to run together a bit here. Ennui sets in if we're not careful. We had to shake ourselves out of the doldrums, and did it this week by planning lots of activities, including two day trips, both hugely successful.

The weather has been so-so: at least some sun most days, but lots of cloud too, and too much wind for our liking. We're in the middle of a windy stretch right now. Temps in the mid- to high teens, with a couple of lovely days up over 20 (and little wind.) Luckily, those were the days of our outings.

By Saturday, Karen was fully recovered from her "episode" of the day of our bus trip to Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert. She now feels certain it was a migraine that got out of hand because she failed to nip it in the bud, as she usually does, with Tylenol. Maybe it was aggravated a bit by motion sickness too. Anyway, she was fine on Saturday, a drizzly day, and we walked over to the market at the aquaduct - Les Arches, or the hoops.

It's the best market yet, the biggest for sure, with lots of interesting stalls selling mouth-watering stuff. The vendors set up under the arches in a long street of booths. We bought some lovely creamy Brebis (sheep) cheese made in the Pyrenees, from a friendly, cheerful woman at a small booth. We'll go back to this market (in fact did go back). It's no further than the Sunday market near Antigone, and bigger and more interesting.

Near St. Roch train station

We continue to walk the city, revisiting favourite haunts and exploring new. I still love the architecture in Antigone, the big urban public-private development project of the 1970s through 1990s just east of the centre: neo-neo-classical, Caitlin called it.

And I seem to have a bit of a photographic obsession with the Cathédral de Saint-Pierre. It's partly the setting, in a trough of surrounding low hills, so that the city seems to cluster - very tightly, almost claustrophobically, round it. It's difficult in fact to get far enough away for a really good view. And then there are the massive pillars on the front porch. They remind me of the towers in a toy castle.

On Wednesday, we visited Musée Atger, the city's oldest museum, and one of its best kept secrets. It houses a fabulous collection of old master drawings in a little suite of rooms on the flirst floor of the main Faculty of Medicine building (right beside the aforementioned cathedral). It's only open a few days a week in the afternoon.

The pictures were collected by a local entrepreneur and art lover, Xavier Atger, in the 18th century. He donated the collection to the Faculty of Medicine, with the proviso that it always be made available to view. The Faculty has added to the collection, but the core of it is Atger's legacy. Entry is free.

Musée Atger

Fragonard, Postillion

You have to buzz at the door. The caretaker lets you in and explains where everything is and then leaves you to it. The drawings are in cupboards on wooden leaves that fold out so you can see front and back - 20 to 25 drawings per cupboard. We had the place to ourselves for much of the time we were there. We spent over an hour browsing. Highlights for me included the works by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), some very nice ones by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) and a Titian.

On Thursday, we decided to revive a discarded plan to visit La Grande Motte, a planned beach resort built in the 1960s and 1970s just east of Montpellier in the Petit Camargue. It would mean taking a bus again, but Karen was sure she could handle it with the help of some Gravol before we set out. It was a shorter ride with no hill climbing. We took the tram out to Place de France at Odysseum and caught the bus from there.

A great crowd of British school kids (well, 15) got on the bus at the same time - all boys about 13 or 14 - led by a frazzled teacher the boys and other chaperones referred to as Madame. When she spoke French, she had what sounded to us like quite a nice accent; when she spoke English, not so much - east London, I think. They got off at a nearer beach town, but caught the same bus as us back to the city later in the day.

La Grande Motte

The appeal of La Grande Motte - especially on an early spring day - is the architecture. This was another from-the-ground-up planned architectural project of a kind the French (Europeans in general maybe) go for. (The influence of socialism and communism, perhaps?) There was apparently virtually nothing here before the project started. Today, it's a small city of about 10,000 and one of the most popular seaside resorts in France with over two million visitors a year.

La Grande Motte

This project was led by an architect named Jean Balladur, who was unheard of before La Grande Motte, but justly famous (at least in architecture circles) after it. He was inspired by the pyramids of Mexico and the modernist architecture of Brazil, especially the work of Oscar Niemeyer. Everything was planned to the nth degree. Even the little church is in the modernist style.

The place is altogether fantastic. Along the beach and back from it, you have these crazy pyramidal apartment buildings. Others are low rise and curvilinear. Still others reminded me a bit of Habitat at the Expo 67. Then there is the huge marina with over 1,300 berths. The aggregate value of the boats berthed here - some as large as 30 foot - must run into the tens of millions of dollars, if not hundreds of millions.

Karen and I walked and walked and walked, over two hours with frequent stops for photography. It was a gorgeous sunny day with temperatures up over 20C. We ended up back at the main highway into town where we found a bus stop, waited for 20 minutes and caught the same bus going back the other way to Montpellier.

A good day: lots of pics. And no motion sickness or migraines.

So we were on a roll and decided to take another bus ride the next day, this time within Montpellier, to the zoo. It's in the northeast corner of the city, an area also referred to as the forest of Montpellier. We had to take a tram part of the way, then a city bus up the hill a couple of clicks to the zoo which is near some of the more suburban parts of the University of Montpellier campus.

Karen generally doesn't like zoos because she feels the animals are often unhappy, if not exactly mistreated. I'm of two minds. We have seen obviously disturbed and deeply bored and frustrated animals, often engaging in obsessive-compulsive behaviours: big cats pacing relentlessly, and in one memorable case, an elephant at the Toronto Zoo, standing with head down, obsessively kicking at a tree. I understand the arguments against and sometimes feel uncomfortable with zoos, but they also play an important role in fostering appreciation of bio-diversity, and preserving species that might otherwise be lost.

First bear: 'Psst! Don't look, but look up there, on the platform. Lunch! See the guy with the camera? Now look to his left. A tasty-looking morsel, eh? Yum, yum."

In any case, this zoo is known for its green and generally forward-thinking practices. It's a sprawling, very natural site, quite wild in places, with over 11 kilometers of trails, many not even paved. Few of the animals are in anything you could call a cage, and many have enough room and cover that they can hide if they want. The leopard, the only big cat on view this day, stalked away when we approached his compound and flopped among some bushes where he was difficult to see and impossible to photograph (rats). The animals generally looked healthy. I don't know about happy.

We took a fresh baguette and cheese and ham and apples and cruditées, and a little 25cl bottle of vino, and had a picnic by the camels. There are picnic tables all through the park. It's also a popular place for joggers. Did I mention that admission is free?

It was another good day. I had lots of fun trying to get portraits of the animals. The camels were the best subjects, such goofy looking dudes. It helped that a little cluster of Italian teenagers came along and called out to the camels and got one to come over closer to the viewing platform. The emus, also quite ridiculous looking, were co-operative as well.

On Saturday, we went back to the Arches market and bought some delicious vegetarian fritters (galettes) for lunch, more of the Brebis cheese, greens, etc. There was quite a good gypsy jazz combo playing. Sunday was mostly dull and windy, but we did get out for a walk in the old city.

An adventure - we take to the hills

Tuesday and Wednesday were nothing-new days. Shopping, of course. Walking, of course. But nothing out of the ordinary. On Tuesday, we walked around the historic centre. I never get tired of it, although I think Karen does. To me, there's always something new to look at (notwithstanding what I just said), even if it's the same buildings or street scapes in different light.

Dance school

On Wednesday, I went out by myself in the morning to photograph around our precinct. I wanted to make sure I shot some of the elegant buildings on Avenue Jeu de Paume, the main shopping artery a couple of blocks from us. They're mostly neo-classical in style, many with stone carvings and attractive iron work. The proportions are very pleasing. They must have been gorgeous when they were still residences. Why can't we build structures like this anymore?

Portrait of the artist as an old man

I also wanted to record some street art I'd noted but never photographed. In one shot, taken over by the Carrefour, I managed entirely accidentally to snap our beggar, the Asian- or middle-eastern-looking woman who sits most days by the bank machine just around the corner. I've caught her, with child in tow, striding toward the market (or on her way home for all I know).

Our beggar, abandoning her post

In the afternoon, Karen and I went out together and headed for a gallery on the far side of the Ecusson. Galerie at Down specializes in street art and art inspired by street art. The exhibit, Sketches of Babylon II, was by an American artist, Mear One (his real name is almost as weird: Kalen Ockerman.) They were mostly acrylics on paper of imaginary, fairly bleak city scapes. Karen found the art very bleak altogether. I liked it, but there is clearly some social-political comment implied, and not entirely hopeful. Some looked vaguely Babylon-ish with high circular towers - although I suppose they could as easily be in a modern city centre, which is perhaps his point.

Painting by Mear One at Galerie At Down, Montpellier

The gallery was also showing some of his serigraphs (screen prints) which I found very attractive. They're pretty reasonably priced too for a limited-edition (non-photographic) print: €300 for a piece 20 x 21 inches.

Serigraph by Mear One, Galerie at Down, Montpellier

From there, we just wandered around the Ecusson. Did I mention that I never get tired of it? And that Karen does? More photographs ensued.

Cathedral, Montpellier

Thursday was our big adventure. We had decided to take the suggestion of our landlord and visit Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert. It's in the hills north and west of here. Saint-Guilhem is listed as one of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France. It has a 12th-century Abbey, and just down the road is a 12th-century stone bridge spanning the Hérault River where it meets the Verdus (which runs down the mountain from the village). Together they make up a UNESCO World Heritage site.  

We looked into renting a car for the day, but it would have cost at least $65, probably more with the hidden charges that seem to be the norm here. So I started researching taking a regional bus, and discovered it's incredibly cheap: €1.60 each way per person for any trip, however far. We had to take the tram to get to the suburban stop where the buses leave from, but even with tram costs, we could get to Saint-Guilhem, which is about 45 minutes away, for a total of €12.40 return - less than $20. For both of us.

The trouble started almost immediately. Karen was motion sick, for the first time in years, on the tram. It didn't help that some stupid teenager got on with a lit cigarette (illegal) and sat near us. By the time we reached the bus stop, a full-blown migraine had set in - or so she assumed it to be. We had come without gravol or pain killers - very stupid - and there were no pharmacies nearby. I was for aborting the journey, but after we had waited the 25 minutes or so for the bus, Karen was feeling enough better that she thought she could manage it. She couldn't.

By the time we got to Saint-Guilhem (with a change of bus at Signac), she was barely hanging on to her breakfast - and in fact lost it in the washroom of the bus station. It didn't get a lot better for the poor wee thing the rest of the day. She was headache-y, dizzy and nauseated much of the time we were in Saint-Guilhem. She had none of the lunch we brought (baguette, cheese, left-over sausage).

We did, however, manage to see the village, and it is indeed very pretty. It's named after a knight of Charlemagne's court who helped drive the Saracens out of this part of Europe. He retired here late in life, helped found the Abbey de Gellone and died here in the early 800s. It was apparently not uncommon for noblemen in the middle ages to abandon family and public life in this way and become monks on retirement.

Place de la Libertée, Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert

Looming over the village is the remnants of a castle, which, according to legend, was once inhabited by a Saracen giant, whom Guilhem slew in single combat. The village's other remarkable feature is the mammoth 150-year-old plane tree in the middle of the Place de la Libertée, the main square (or only square).

Abbey de Gellone, Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert

At least some of the time, Karen was well enough to enjoy it. The Abbey museum was closed, but the very austere church was open, and what remains of the cloister. Most of the cloister was dismantled and sold off over centuries, some of it ending up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Cloister Museum in upstate New York. There was some interesting remnants of painted frescoes on the surviving cloister walls - possibly medieval, but without the information presumably available in the museum, we don't really know.

Abbey de Gellone, Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert

We had arrived about 1:30, and sat in the main square for 20 minutes or so while I filled my face, but most of the rest of the time until our bus left at 5:05, we wandered around the village, which is not very big. At one point, I left Karen sitting on a stone wall in the sun with her head down while I traipsed up a hill taking photographs. But for the most part, she was a trouper. We finished the day in a cafe overlooking the river gorge. By the time the bus came, Karen was feeling much better, she said.

Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert

It didn't last, unfortunately. The bus set her off again. I bought pills in Signac, but they did little good and she was in pretty rough shape by the time we got home. In fact, she took to bed without dinner and slept from about eight that night, right through until 7 the next morning. She's still not right today, which makes me wonder if it really is a migraine. I'm not sure she's ever had a migraine that made her this sick, certainly not in many years. But it's not impossible. Some people get migraines like this. The other possibility is a viral bug. We shall see.

Karen feeling poorly on the tram

I went out in the afternoon and wondered around the Ecusson taking pictures and looking in shop and gallery windows. Karen napped and lay down most of the day, but is now enough better to be sitting up doing a sudoku. We'll see.

Montpellier, Ecusson, German cultural centre

Lazy days in Montpellier

Merde, il pleut! 

We're in the midst of six or seven straight days of mostly overcast with at least some chance of rain. It rained all day Sunday. And temperatures are not much if any above what folks back home are experiencing. Remind me why we came here.

Rain coming - from our kitchen window

Since the Hutes' departure on Thursday, Karen and I have not had a great deal of excitement. Our days are filled with walking, shopping, reading, looking stuff up on the Internet, Scrabble (I'm ahead 3 zip on the season series - woohoo!), Sudoku, TV (we're deep into a very good Canadian - yes, Canadian! - scifi series called Orphan Black on Netflix), more reading, more Sudoku, eating, etc.

Are we bored? No, just taking a breather. Just living a quiet life.

Montpellier, Ecusson - note bits and pieces of old church architecture incorporated in building on right

We did check out an outdoor show of products, mostly farm products, from the Cévennes, the mountainous area just north of here. It was set up on the Esplanade, off Place de la Comédie. That was Friday, I think. It was remarkable for the weird fuzzy chickens and a baby bison in the little petting zoo enclosure. And for the irritatingly cheery commentary played over a loudspeaker system audible across most of central Montpellier.

On Saturday, we went for a walk in the precincts south and west of us, mostly fairly boring residential and commercial areas. But we did discover two substantial outdoor markets, both recently ended when we came to them. One is in a place called Place Roger Salengro which, judging by the people and shops in the streets around it, is a mainly immigrant area. We'll go back maybe on Saturday in the morning and check it out. There was one shop across from the square with huge mounds of very cheap Moroccan oranges.

Montpellier, sunny square near Course Gambetta

Montpellier, Les Arceaux

We walked on to Les Arceaux (the hoops), the area in the shadow of the ancient arched aqueduct. The remnants of it still run for a couple of kilometres from the Place Royale de Peyrou towards the mountains to the north - from which the city once got its clean water supply. The market is apparently set up under the arches. When we came along, the city crews were out cleaning up, and middle aged men were playing boules under one of the arches. It looked like it might be a really big market, given how much area the street cleaners were covering. This one is open Tuesday to Saturday, so we may pop over today. If it stops raining.

Montpellier, boules under Les Arceaux

Montpellier, grotesques on architraves of commercial building near apartment

We did walk down to the market by Antigone on Sunday to buy apples. It rained steadily the whole time, but we had umbrellas and, despite rumours to the contrary, we're not made of sugar. We were a little surprised that all the vendors seemed to be there, and quite a few shoppers too, despite the weather.

I was so bored - okay, yes, sometimes I'm bored - I undertook a not very successful photographic experiment in the apartment. Spooky.

Mysterious intruder

Yesterday was a better day than forecast, with some sun and temperatures in the mid-double digits celsius. We walked to Odysseum, the suburban shopping-entertainment complex out toward the highway and airport. It's another city-sponsored or -assisted planned building development. I thought the architecture might at least be interesting. We did walk through more of Port Marianne, which is adjacent, and saw interesting-looking apartment and commercial blocks. But aside from a space-age-looking lycée (community college) on the edge of Odysseum, the architecture there is uninpired and uninspiring. It reminded us of the Disney-ish architecture you see a lot of in southern California. The shopping mall is gigantic and sprawling, and full of nothing but global chain stores. We took the tram home.

Montpellier, Odysseum, Lycée Georges Frêche

Montpellier, Port Marianne

Today, I don't know. I may have to whomp Karen at Scrabble again.