Montpellier and on to Stes - Maries De-La-Mer

We did another trip into Monpellier for 2 reasons. Firstly, the city square was at one time the largest in Europe and considered to be an excellent example of how to build a place where people will gather. Secondly, Le Grand Mot (The big beach) was calling our names!

 This is the transit system that comes right into the square. Its bright and colorful and moves efficiently throughout the city. Montpellier is a university town about the size of Victoria. It does, however, seem much much larger. The swimming pool was massive boasting a retractable roof  and 50 meter swim lanes all over the place. Beautiful.  But it's  the city center that is most interesting. Not only large, it ties together a walking lane (50ft wide) from the university, a large shopping mall, a park and theatre (entertainment) area. The square and promenade are full of street vendors selling everything from Man bags to mangoes.




Jake and I noticed a trend where Dads and Sons dress the same. This is so cool we thought. Usually reserved for Dads and young boys of 5 or 6 years old, we thought we'd look so sharp we should do it too. Cool hey?

And off to the beach! Here are a couple shots of the beach Looking in first one direction and then the other. There are easily 1000 people in the water. Air temp is around 35 and the water is cool and refreshing.

After Monpellier we headed off for the town of Stes-Marles De la Mer. Our thinking was that a little seaside village would be perfect for our next destination. I'll talk more about this town later but for now I'll say that it is like Penticton on steroids. People everywhere and no hotels available for at least a few days. Surely there must be a cancellation..... After trying 20 or more hotels - there were no cancellations. Ohoh. Back to the nearest city Arles....complet complet complet. All hotels full!

We wandered around Arles until about 11 pm when we finally walked into a place where there had been a cancellation 5 minutes before. The people in front of us got the first - we got the second room. Whew - that was close.

Funny bit - we have become completely dependant on Hilda our navigation system. She takes us to hotels, points of interest, cities etc. We go boldly with few if any errors by our trusty friend. But not on this night. On 2 occasions Hilda took us to hotel addresses in the middle of the country. "You have reached your destination on the right" she'd say. We'd all look around and laugh at the kms of nothingness all around us. At one point I'm sure she took us over a pedestrian bridge across the highway. Having a Hilda (with a couple exceptions) is making navigation a snap. Highly recommended!