Exploring the old town

The are where we are staying is really nice.  Its called Comedie for the theatre that sits atop the square.  Ive noticed that alot of place in france have Carousels.  Very cool and I love looking at all the different paintings on them.  The one near us is dated 1900!

We set off early to try to hire bikes for a ride.  We didn't have any luck with their machines so we ended up making the journey by foot.  First up was the old city.  There are many different styles of architecture here - all of them are very beautiful. The first place we wanted to see was the palace grounds.  To get there we had to walk down a long street called Rue de Foch.  It took us a while to walk where we wanted to get to as there is just so many quirky streets and beautiful buildings to look at.  We found our way to the Peyrou water Palace after walking under the Triumphal Arch and past the. old court buildings. At the rear of the "Palace" there is a massive aquaduct that was quite spectacular.

random sidestreet

local government building

mini arch de Triumphe

another little street

law courts

King Louis statue 

Peyrou water palace

one of the various university campus'

checking out the garden

After the palace ground area we decided to walk down to the Jardin des Plantes park and we took one of the backstreets to get there.  We came across the most amazing church attached to one of their Universities.  It was the Cathedral de Saint Pierre du Montpellier.  We were there right at 10 am so got to hear the bells chime.

love the vines

school of medicine

St Peters

Nate - "look at that"

he was pointing at these stairs

side of the cathedral

le Jardins des Plantes

dedication of the church

17th century Saint Charles General Hospital 

We stopped at a nearby cafe for coffee and a cold drink as it was already around 30degrees - very hot and humid here!  We wandered back towards our hotel and found more buildings to go ooh and ahh at.

the wrought iron on each building is different

The rest of the day was a quiet affair and we went to the local Italian restaurant.  Tony had the best Calzone ever and Nate and I had lovely pasta.  Dinner was on a bit of a rotation - Nate and I swapped, then Tony and Nate swapped, so we all got a taste of each.

Tony visiting the red wine section in the local Monoprix