montpellier and nimes

My friend Rachel was attending the university in Montpellier during 2005-6 so she offered to let us stay at her place.
I had only briefly been to Montpellier (a matter of hours spent strolling vacant streets during a holiday) so the city was only vaguely familiar. It was only our third city on that trip and we were already ready to settle down for a week. Krystin was still attempting to do multiple online classes so it provided her a place to read and send homework back. But basically we stayed with Rachel for about 6 days (I think).

During this time, we visited the local sites, went to the university at least once to eat, took a day trip to Nimes, and explored the stores and French living, along with our host.

I think Montpellier is really where Krystin’s love of Kebabs took off. Rachel frequented a few places. Actually one interesting thing about southern French kebabs is that they do it in a different style, the meat and salad is wrapped up in a tortilla similar to a burrito. (Rachel calls them North African burritos or something like that)
Anyway. There are a number of kebab places run by various groups of north Africans that compete for local business, they all have names like “Star Kebabs” “King Kebabs” which is interesting because other than the university which has a small international student population, there really isn’t as much tourism to Montpellier as other southern French cities. This is not because the city isn’t wealthy, its more just a matter of location, Avignon, Nimes, Aix en Provence, Marseille, Cannes and Nice are much more popular for various reasons (history, wealth, movies, beaches, fashion). Anyway, Montpellier’s main attraction is the central square la Comedie, and perhaps the local aqueduct and arch de triumph . La Comedie is not too different from other European central squares; it has some significant buildings making up the sides as well as cafes, restaurants and stores. Often times street performers will gather in the center to make money, there is a fountain and a theater which the square is named after.
Montpellier also has an old quarter directly behind La Comedie, the winding streets often lead to old churches and what look like castle walls, but have mainly been transformed in to a small commercial district, where there are some interesting bohemian elements, tattoo shops, skateboard stores, hip hop stores, West African art stores, as well as some new age candle and craft stores, and small music alternative stores.
Also in this area are some fairly expensive name brand type stores, many of French and Italian design rather than American. A light rail system runs around the old city to the university where we had lunch one day in a cafeteria style set up. The cafeteria served multiple items, greek and Mediterranean salads, free bead (I took several) fries and sandwiches, as well as items to order.
The university looked much like an American university; it was geographically separated to make a campus feel. The classrooms and computer labs seemed very similar to Morris.
On the way back we stopped at a French patisserie which served traditional French pastries, tarts, croissants, strange fruit cookie things…
Krystin and Rachel about died and went to heaven.
We walked the tram line back, on one side was residential housing that looked like suburban style housing, a bit more colorful, but with green lawns and what not. On the other side was the wall and buildings signifying the old town.

I guess I was surprised by the West African influence in some of the shops. They sold the same things they sell in African countries, wooden goods, cloth, crafts… I don’t know why French is heavily associated with West Africa but West African influence is rarely associated with France (where as I think North Africa, does play a pretty significant cultural role in France).
We went to a grocery store that was similar to other European grocery stores –meaning it had multiple levels including items seen more in department stores.
We also went to stores like the virgin mega store, and things like that, very trendy European commercial electronics.

Rachel introduced us to some of her friends, one of whom was a Swedish/Bulgarian who had spent time in America, he was very excitable and outspoken and watching the Olympics with him was a treat, as he ridiculed every nation but the 4 he had called home, while the rest of us couldn’t have cared less.

I also went to a party at some of her friends house, but the party was hardly any different than an American party except that I didn’t speak the language of most of the people there.

We took a trip to Nimes, where denim comes from, with a friend of rachel’s specifically for the purpose of shopping at a local mall that had an H&M a very popular trendy European clothes store. While the girls shopped I walked around the mall.
3 of the 4 food places in the mall served the same style food. The 4th was a multi-style cafeteria place. We ate there. The other places served coffee and sandwiches.
The mall had a grocery store/that really reminded me of a mix between and office max and a grocery store… but probably was similar to a Super Wal-Mart.
While in Nimes, we also went to a creperie (spelling?) and Krystin got to try her first crepe I think she had a nutella one. Nutella being the European’s counter to peanut butter only in a chocolate nut form.
We also visited a church that was closed and a coliseum style arena that was Roman and also closed.

I guess in many ways Montpellier and Nimes are what I would call typically southern French cities. They have great historical pasts, lively centers, a mix of tradition and modernity. The culture is French, but with hints of north African, European and American influence. (my favorite being hip hop graffiti “American” and kebabs “Mediterranean?” )