Making Friends in Montpellier
Happy Monday Everyone! I hope your weekend was full of sun, shopping, and sand like ours was. The Hub and I had a great weekend exploring life outside of Montpellier's city center, thanks to some of our new friends. But let me start at the beginning. Friday night we went to a Royal Wedding After Party at the French American Center. We found out the FAC by Googling "Americans in Montpellier" (Google, how I love you. Google Translate, how I love you even more). We weren't sure what to expect as we headed over to the center but we knew that if Montpellier was ever going to feel like home, we had to make an effort to meet new people and find friends. The party ended up being a gathering of a lot of really warm and inviting people, some wine and beer, small apps and a bit of live music - parfait! But oddly enough....we were the only Americans. We came to find out that the FAC is mostly French people looking to learn English (which will be great as we get teamed up with language partners) and a bunch of Brits! Classic! No problem though, everyone was super nice and excited to have us. After all, we were putting the AMERICAN in the French American Center. We met the woman who runs the center, Jeannette, who is from England but has lived in France for over 20 years. After a few drinks and some hilarious conversation, she invited us to have lunch with her and her boyfriend, Michael, on Sunday. How exciting! Our first date! On Saturday we ventured over to the Odysseum, which is a huge outdoor complex with an aquarium, bowling alley, restaurants and tons of shopping. We had lunch at a Brazilian restaurant called Picanho Do Brasil, which was delicious and as close as we could get to satisfying our craving for Mexican. (The idea of opening a taco cart seems more and more lucrative everyday.) After we stuffed our faces, we decided to do a little research on how much money we're going to have drop at Ikea and Géant (the French version of Wal-Mart) when we finally move into our own place. Most apartments and houses do not come equipped with anything and the renter is expected to buy it - I'm talking stoves, refrigerators, ovens, etc. The final cost estimation is: a lot. But we're working to find some sites like Craigslist to see if we can get some secondhand appliances on the cheap. Stay tuned! That night we decided to go see an American movie in V.O . - Version Original! Our choices were Thor or Scream 4. What a line-up. We went with Scream 4, because I just loved the Scream franchise when it first came out in 1996. We laughed over the teeny, little theater, but the seats were comfortable, the popcorn was tasty and the movie was entertaining. A great date night in Montpellier! On Sunday Jeanette and Michael treated us to lunch in Palavas, one of the little beach towns about 15 km south of Montpellier. We ate at an adorable little restaurant right on the beach. In true French style, we had wine, lunch, dessert, and café. Tré chic! We had a great time getting to know our new friends and enjoying some much needed beach time.
the view from our table
After a lovely lunch, Jeanette and Michael dropped us off in town so that we could explore Palavas. It's a typical beach town with lots of shops and cafés, but on the beach there are tons of volleyball and soccer courts and even a giant trampoline! We were pretty disappointed to learn that dogs are not allowed on any of the beaches. I haven't broken the news to Fig yet.
la plage
- Palavas
- loving the sun
- pensive Hub.
We hit a slight snafu when we waited at the bus stop...and waited...and waited. After a lot of broken French and 2 bus stops later, we figured out that the buses were not running - because it was May 1st - duh!! Apparently that's some sort of special bank holiday, so there was no public transportation in Palavas. I will never understand all the holidays and when things are open and when they aren't. We ended up calling a cab back to Montpellier which cost us 35e. There really is no such thing as a free lunch.
Tomorrow I'm going back over to the French American Center to volunteer my time helping Jeanette with a kids day camp. It should be really fun and I'm looking forward to doing something with my day other than walking, shopping, eating and drinking, which is what I did today. Fig and I took the tram to a neighborhood called Les Beaux Arts (which is one of the places we're house-hunting) to check it out and have lunch.
the tram - isn't it cool!!
my lunch at "le spot" in beaux arts
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Sounds like a great weekend! I love the picture of Michael!
It looks like an incredible adventure so far…even though there’s have been some snags here and there, but you both seem to have no problem adjusting which is great and I’m so happy to see FEE GEE is doing well. Love reading your posts and miss you all. TTYS =)
Oh, and I want that food! Looks amazing!
Fun!! Nice to hear you’re already starting to make friends. Figures. ;-)
Good luck with the bank account! Would love to hear about your experience. If it’s anything like ours, it’s a major pain.
Hi, found your blog while searching for THOR in VO to have a night our with my wife. We are near Lodeve. English and German. Been here 13 years so we have a handle on a few things. You can take a look where we live, here:https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.114731885273216.22222.100002092164222&l=4f710d895b, ANnette is an Osteopath and I am a Rolfer-Body Worker and photographer.
Conact if you wish
Where did you find THOR in vo? I can’t find it in Montpellier. I just took a raincheck on Thor in Berlin because it was in 3D, which is lost on me.
BB
hi barry! we actually went to gaumont in the city center to see the movie. i’ll definitely check out your facebook album, thanks for getting in touch!