26 August - 3 September Howard booked to go to Ireland fishing, so I decided to take the opportunity to go to France to do a French Language course. I decided on Montpellier as there is a direct flight from Amsterdam, it is in the south so the weather should be good, and there is a french language school there that has good reviews and will accept people for just one week. I booked to stay for the week at a host family, and added a couple of extra days so I could do a bit of looking around. I arrived on Sunday afternoon and was picked up by my host family, actually it was a retired lady Rossitza. Her place was a nice apartment a little out of town, but there was a good bus - which unfortunately didn't operate after 8:30 at night. There was another student staying with her who was from Italy. So this was a good opportunity to practise my french which was a little rusty. After the first day which went from 8:30am until about 3:30pm, I had classes from 9am to 12:30pm so there was plenty of time to do a bit of homework as well as look around. Montellier has a large student population, and it was the last week of the school holidays so there were more tourists than students. It is a delightful city, with lot's of narrow winding alleyways, as well as some dramatic buildings and spaces. On Wednesday afternoon I did an activity arranged through the school which was a tour of Nimes - a Roman town only about 45 minutes from Montpellier. The tour was to be in French, but since it targeted the many language schools in the city, the guide spoke slowly and clearly and helped his explanation with gestures, sound effects and the odd English, Spanish or German word. I was able to follow it OK. Nimes has an Roman arena that is still used today for bull fights. Also a very well preserved temple. We were told that that denim was invented in Nimes. De Nimes (from Nimes), was shortened over time to denim. (Confirmed by Wikipedia). I did a second activity on Saturday. Our first stop was Arles. Here the Mistral was blowing at full force which kept the temperature down a bit. Arles is another city that was important in Roman times, and also has a Roman Arena that is still used for bull fights. Arles most famous resident was Vincent Van Gough, who painted many scenes in the city. We visited the hospital where he recovered after cutting off his ear. Three Irish women from my school that I had become friendly with were also on the tour so we had lunch together. In the afternoon we headed for Les Baux-de-Provence a small village built upon rocks. It was a very picturesque with lots of windy streets. We were told that the local rocks were made of bauxite, and in fact bauxite was named after this tiny village. We didn't have time to visit the Citadelle which is perched at the very top, so perhaps another time. It was great spending this day with Eileen, Margaret and Carmel, my Irish friends. On Sunday afternoon I headed down to the beach. I had hoped to hire a bike, but the automat didn't work for me. I couldn't work out why. So caught a tram and a bus and spent a couple of hours down there. It was a nice beach with nice sand and clear water. And from the bus I saw the famous flamingos. The Canal du Midi route goes along just near the coast, so no doubt we'll be back here with Moondance one day. I look forward to that.
And my French? Well I could understand most of what was going on and I could mostly make myself understood. However I was a bit slow at comprehension and speaking so more practice is required.
4 Comments
Johanna Hersey
4/9/2018 10:18:42 pm
Ravie de lire que tu es allee a Montpellier pour un cours intensif de francais. Immersion totale donne d'excellents resultats. Sauf bien sur si on passe le rested du temps avec des amis irlandais...
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Andrea Thomas
5/9/2018 10:12:15 am
We visited Baux de Provence early evening and were surprised to find the whole village was unoccupied. No one lives there any more and all just for tourists. This is what happens when a place becomes too much of a tourist Mecca.
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Cheryl Poustie
6/9/2018 02:31:27 am
I can't reply in French but I love the feel your photos and description give of your 'side trip', Deb. Looks like superb weather for all the 'girls', the Irish group and their Aussie friend, you! All out & about in comfy shorts! Great times:)
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Sue Veal
23/9/2018 09:32:42 am
Lovely to see photos and so pleased you had a good time in southern France at the language school and sightseeing. We loved Arles too.
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