Quote Of The Day

"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake - Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)"

Friday, September 15, 2023

Montpellier…

Our last full day in France is in Montpellier, so, what we finally know:-

The south of France is a great place to have a holiday!

The trouble with living in a pleasant seaside town in the middle ages was pirates. 🏴‍☠️ This was especially true for the town of Maguelone on the south shore of present-day France. Regular looting and blaggardry from the sea was positively rife. A settlement a bit more inland needed - so they merged a small village nearby with Maguelone, added a nice castle, a weird cathedral, some much needed shops, and some sturdy walls and called the new place Montpellier. 

1,038 years later Montpellier still remains a cherished crossroads of the Mediterranean. With sunshine most of the year, delicious food, many historical sights and neighbourhoods, and world class universities and museums (students make up almost 1/3 of the population) and much more; many travellers come here, many never leave. 

The sightseeing stand-outs for Stuart and me were Montpellier Cathedral (with its fabulously weird twin towers), Porte du Peyrou (that looks like the Arc de Triomphe but isn’t), Promenade du Peyrou (that doesn’t look like the Arc de Triomphe but is) and the Montpellier Aqueduct (big, long, and very archy). 

The nightlife was pretty good too. 😉🕺🏼🪩🍻

The place is a sort of nicer version of nearby Marseille. 😅




















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