A Day of Street Art in Montpellier, France

Eager to secure a good position near the finishing line of stage 15 (Limoux to Montpellier) of the Tour de France, we woke up early, grabbed a coffee and pain au chocolate from the local patisserie and walked to the location of the stage finish which we’d researched the previous evening. When we arrived and saw no people, signage or barriers we realized something was wrong and hurried, confused, to the tourist office to see if they knew where we needed to be. As it turned out, the Tour route was changed at the last minute and the stage finish was to be located about half an hour out of the city by tram, which only ran half-hourly on a Sunday.

enjoying an espresso & pastry whilst waiting for Tam, the tram

By the time we got to the finish line we were convinced that we would have to sit 500m from the finish, but I guess a few people had the same issue as us, because we got a front-row seat (and by seat, I mean we were leaning on a median strip rail) about 10m from the finish line. We were quite pleased with ourselves, and spent the 6 hour wait congratulating ourselves on the outstanding position and making friends with the Canadian girl next to us. About half an hour before the riders were due to arrive, there was a mass throng of people trying to get a better view and we were pushed, shoved and kicked by people vying for better photo-taking positions. We did our best to defend our turf but by the time the cyclists arrived there were so many people leaning out past the barriers that I literally didn’t see a single rider in the lead peleton as they went past; I was quite upset to have wasted a whole day to see nothing but luckily my camera, which I had pointed beyond the crushing throng, got a better view than I did:

Cavendish taking the stage win & retaining the Maillot Vert (green jersey)

Brendan was excited to see himself in a photo on Cycling News in the evening, but it shows how crowded it was, and how completely engulfed I was (spot Brendan above the rider in blue, he’s wearing a blue t-shirt):

© Roberto Bettini. image source: cyclingnews.com

As we were leaving, feeling slightly disappointed, I spotted a gap in the fence which led to one of the grandstands overlooking the podium. Not wanting to have wasted the entire day, I squeezed through the fence leaving Brendan as he got stopped by the police, and found myself with an excellent view of the podium as they presented the day’s winners. By the time we left I felt better about the day, although not really keen to repeat another finish-line experience.

Cavendish in green

The following day was our first day ‘off’ since we started the trip, so we spent it exploring the city and the nearby beach. As we started walking around we discovered a Space Invader piece by street artist Invader, and once we started looking for them we saw the small mosaics everywhere! We had to stop ourselves from just looking up all the time to try to spot the street art, and focus also on our beautiful surroundings.

ancient architecture vs. modern street art

Montpellier's own Arc du Triomphe, in honour of Louis XIV

Saint Clément Aqueduct

Place de la Comédie, Montpellier's main square

Although Montpellier is a really beautiful city, it’s not very big so we had seen a lot of the pretty, cobbled streets by lunch time. We had been looking around the Antigone district, a neo-classical themed neighbourhood, and we decided to stop for a quick & cheap lunch. In London, a cheap lunch consists of a small pre-packaged sandwich or salad which is usually average at best, and totally overpriced. For about €6, I was served this delicious, fresh salad with a homemade vinaigrette dressing, slices of grilled goat’s cheese and walnuts:

chèvre chaud, a warm goat's cheese salad

Feeling smug after such a surprisingly gourmet lunch, we grabbed the car and let Mandy the GPS direct us to the seaside town of Palavas-les-Flots, about 20 minutes from Montpellier. The sun was shining, the beach was sand instead of pebbles, and it was glorious to have nothing to do but enjoy a beer at a beach bar. I even dipped my toes into the Mediterranean, but had forgotten to bring towels so couldn’t take the plunge!

beach at Palavas-les-Flots

Palavas-les-Flots

We sauntered around for an hour or so and and then drove back to Montpellier for dinner. We found a cafe serving moules frites (mussels with fries); I wasn’t expecting much but they were by far the freshest, most delicious mussels I’ve ever had. They were drowned in a white wine, garlic & parsley sauce and I devoured the whole kilogram plus the golden frites, and followed it up with a smooth espresso. Oh, how I love France!