Montpellier

Somehow, I went to Montpellier three times and never blogged about it.  Oops!  I think because I went to Paris immediately after two of the trips, and by the time I'd gotten home, forgotten to blog the beginning part of the trip.  So, wanting to be fully caught up on blogging before I head out on the Big White Boat (BWB!), I've got a little back-blogging to do.

Montpellier is a town about two hours west of Marseille.  It's a major university town, so there are students everywhere.  It's also very clean, pretty, and just downright pleasant.  Here is the main square of town, called the Comedie.

 One of the things I find very pretty in Montpellier are the colored glass street lamps.  They are a gorgeous swirl of blue and green.  I haven't seen them at night when they're all lit up, but I sure would like to!

Behind me in the picture (and then again in the picture below) is the um, I-don't know what it's actually called, Temple of Water at the end of the Aqueduct.

Another thing I really like in Montpellier are the tromp l'oeils.  (I first introduced you to them a few months ago in THIS post from Avignon.)  The one below is AWESOME.  It covers the side of a building, but is made to look like two buildings that have an alley in between, and an entry arch to the alley.  The "building" on the left is made to look like a curved triangular building, but really...it's flat.  So cool.

 None of those windows are real.  They're all painted.

This next one isn't a trompe l'oeil, but just a cute painting.  It's huge.  I probably come up to the little girl's shoulder.

Several of us sat and stared at this trompe l'oeil for awhile.  The entire right side is not real, including the people on the stairs.  (The cafe is real, though!)  I was amazed at the reflection of the glass to show the church that was across from the building (that we were sitting in front of), and that we could barely tell which windows on the left were real and which were paintings.  So neat!

Since I'm putting up photos of trompe l'oeils (should I say trompes l'oeil or trompe les yeux when plural?  Who knows...oh the French), I'll add this next one, even though it's not in Montpellier.  It's at the local water well, where people used to be able to come to get fresh water to take back to their house, as well as to do their laundry.  

In this close up, you can still see the real water running.

 Back to Montpellier...another thing I like are the tiny curvy streets.  And the random half-bicycles poking out of buildings.

 That's Montpellier.  They have an excellent fish n chips restaurant, good people, pretty sights and nothing crazy at all to blog about.  I highly recommend it.  :)