Montpellier, France

We decided we needed to make one more day trip in Provence, so we chose the city of Montpellier, about an hour train ride out of Avignon.  Located on the south coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, it is the third-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast after Marseille and Nice.

Place de la Comedie.  One of the largest pedestrian areas in Europe

Created in 1773 by Etienne d'Antoine, the Three Graces Statue/Fountain (Aglae, Euphrosine and Thaliel) in the middle of the Place de la Comedie is one of the emblems of Montpellier.

Some of the babies on the base of the statue

The Opera Comedie1888

Headed up the street toward the Arc de Triomphe

The Prefecture (a hotel)

Palais de Justice.  Courthouse built in 1853 in the neoclassical style

At the end of the 17th century, the king's indendant decided to erect this triumphal arch, a copy of the gates of Paris, in honor of Louis XIV, built where one of the gates of the ancient rampart used to be.

Place Royale du Peyrou.  Provides the setting for the mounted statue of Louis XIV, forming a remarkable group of monuments, with the Arc de Triomphe, Water tower and Saint-Clement aqueduct

Chateau d'Eau created at the same time as the aqueduct in the 18th century, the water tower held the citys water reserves

The engineer, Henri Pitot de Launay, drew inspiration from the Pont de Gard to build Saint-Clement aqueduct in 1754.  It supplied drinking water to the city from the springs in the town of Saint-Clement.

Headed back out to the street to go to the School of Medicine and Cathedral

La Faculte de Medecine.  Montpellier was only two centuries old in 1181, when its Lord Guilhem VIII signed a surprising and far-reaching edict.  He declared that anyone, regardless of religion or background, could teach medicine in Montpellier..... Thus was born, at the end of the 12th century, what is today one of the oldest operating medical schools in the western world.  The Faculté de Médecine is located in the ancient halls of a medieval monastery and Episcopal palace.

You can see where the cathedral begins at the end of the medical school building

The Cathedral Saint-Pierre.  Pope Urban V, a former student of Montpellier, had a monestery and church built in 1364, later to become the Saint-Pierre Cathedral in 1536.  Its southern Gothic style, massive profile and dominating portico supported by two circular columns, give the effect of a medieval fortress.

Not my picture, but this place was so massive, you couldn't get a good shot from street level.

Another huge Creche

Jardin des Plantes - A peaceful haven, a green island, just a few steps away from the Faculty of Medicine, it is the oldest botanical garden in France!  Created by Pierre Richer de Bellaval at the request of Henri IV for the study of medicinal plants, it was extended and opened to the public in the 19th century.  Alas it was not open yet, so we couldn't go in.   We snapped a couple pictures from outside and 

as it was chilly, we decided to find a place to get coffee and then come back in an hour when the garden opened.  As it turned out, where this garden and school was located, there was not much open in the way of coffee shops or restaurants, so we headed back into the more central part of the city.  We passed a statue stuck into a corner and it turned out to be Joan of Arc.  She seems to turn up everywhere.

We then came to the Ursuline convent built in 1641, later turned into a prison for women during the Revolution.

We passed through the gate back into the old city

again passing the convent which now houses the Montpellier National Choreographic Centre and Agora, the International Dance Centre.

We climbed the streets back into the center and of town

and by this time we not only needed coffee, we needed food.  We found a cafe on the square.  After a coffee, burger and fry lunch,  we decided to catch a tram that took us out of the center of the city about 20 minutes to the Odysseum.  Just an aside our tram was blue for the Blue Line, but others were quite colorful.  This was my favorite.

Anyway back to the Odysseum.  It is an area of shops, an Aquarium, a Planetarium, restaurants and the " "Place du XXe siecle" (20th century plaza) (which is what we really wanted to see when we came out here).  It is home to "Memoria Mundi:  History through great people".  Ten statues created by artist Francois Cacheux stand in this space to represent influential ideologies of the 20th century.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Golda Meir, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Mao Zedong, Nelson Mandela, Charles De Gaulle, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Vladimir Ilitch Lenin, Jean Jaures 

I got them all in a collage but the last Jean Jaures

Also the only one I had not heard of, Jean Jaures was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party.  He was assassinated at the outbreak of World War I, but remains one of the main historical figures of the French Left.

After wandering through the Odysseum, we caught the tram back into city center and decided we had time to go back to the Garden of Plants.  As there was a tram stop close to it we just stayed on it and it dropped us very nearby.  

The Jardin des Plantes"

It is indeed a peaceful place and lovely even in winter.  I would imagine it is a wonderful place to walk and spend time in the summer.

We noticed little folded papers stuck into the hollows of this tree trunk.  They were various notes left by visiters to the garden.  We had no paper or pen, so did not leave evidence of our passing this way. 

Pierre Richer de Bellaval, Founder of the Garden

Very tall trees

tunnels

As I said beautiful and peaceful

We decided to walk back to center city again.  By the time we got there, out feet were talking to us, so we went straight to the train station and caught the next train back to Avignon.  A beautiful day and our last outing in Provence.  This coming Wednesday we are off to Lisbon, Portugal.  Next blog from there.