Tuesday May 3 - Sunday May 8 Castlenau Le Lez

 Tuesday May 3

We arrived at the station in time for a traditional Paul's coffee and croissant outside on the large terrasse.  

The train to Marseille left on time at 11.20 and arrived in Marseille  at 2.03 on time.  No seat  reservations on this train but it wasn't the busiest train to marseille that we've been in. We carefully chose the day and time of travel because we've done this on a Friday, and on a Monday with people littered all over the floors and doorways. 

  About an 85 minutes to wait For the marseille - Bordeaux train, with just one stop at Nîmes before Montpellier. This train had newer carriages, comfortable seats, and an unfulfilled promise of wifi, we had assigned seats but it was quiet enough we changed to sears with more legroom facing the direction of the train. 

My thought as I looked at the countryside, is there one square inch of France that has not been fought over, from the Greeks, Roman's, goths, Germanic tribes, Vikings, England, wars of religion, revolutions, the world wars?   Today, as I write this, it's  Sunday May 8th, is Victory day, marking the signing of the treaty in Reims with the German and allied forces. 

St Roch station was busy, we arrived at 5pm  in the middle of rush hour, we bought our 10 trip tram  pass at the machine and arrived at the stop for our apartment. 

And here's one way to run a city....under 18, or over 65, ride free . And in 2023, all citizens will ride free.  And if you add in the people who come on the tram with scooters and bikes there's a great way to reduce carbon footprint one city at a time. Public transport anywhere will never "make money" so why try to attempt it with convoluted pricing. The tram network here is extensive, so it is in many French cities, no slogans like subways, subways subways, or the left are waging war on the automobile. That war was lost when the cities began, but before the automobile was even invented

When we got off the tram, we saw the huge change.  Last trip it was a gigantic construction site which we needed to walk around, now it's a large complex of apartment buildings with a beautiful interior landscaped garden, business  school, Montessori, offices and a Carrefour neighbourhood supermarket.  We cut through the complex to get to the apartment and Marina was on the street to welcome us. 

Marina had provided breakfast in the fridge but we needed supper, so we zipped over to the Carrefour to get some pasta and sauce and settled in. 

It's a large, well appointed apartment on the top floor of an old farmhouse and ...so quiet..Marina and her husband live downstairs, we don't hear them and they claim they don't hear us..so, all good! 

Marseille 

End of the line 

Wednesday May 4 

Very lazy morning. Sat in the courtyard all morning in the sun drinking coffee and decompressing.

And some background we are not really in Montpellier proper, but in an area called Castelnau le lez, à village on the river Lez which runs beside our apartment.  We are, Castelnauviens.   

We came here last trip because my friend Hubert and his wife live in Castelnau a few stops further on the tram.  And , it's just about 25 mins into the city by tram but much calmer than being in Montpellier. 

We took the tram to Monoprix in town, just off the Place de la Comédie,  there's a big supermarket closer, but we also just wanted to see the city again. 

PDC is purportedly the biggest plaza in Europe. A people space that size would never exist now, land in the centre is too lucrative for condos and businesses.  

In the afternoon we sat in the garden and had cheese and olives and watched thunder clouds developing. 23c and going to 27c this weekend. 

Charles De Gaulle tram stop

Tram stop at PDLC 

The Gaumont cinema where Lynda went to see Downton Abbey.   

And I'm showing this photo not to get you all excited about  but to start a rant! 

In Canada we're controlled by liquor  congrol boards that are huge, and dictate what you can and cannot buy.  In our experience in BC and Ontario the liquor boards don't sell much local product and their excuse has always  been we need to sell in quantities that can go into every store in the network and small wineries can't produce the product. Kinda makes sense and we all go along with it.

But here in Castelnau le lez, in a small carrefour city which is is part of gigantic carrefour supermarket chain, they can manage to stock wines from the Pic Saint Loup region 40kms away, on its shelves. 

Thursday May 6

Another day in Castelnau, and another supermarket.  There used to be an old dilapidated supermarket in Castelenau, called price leader, small,  but it was functional.    It's now become an Aldi, they've spruced up everything, and it's a bit better shopping experience. Except for the one cashier and 12 people in the lineup.  Decent prices.   We walked up into the village, about 7 minutes walk, intending to wander around first and take photos, but it started to rain.  Not heavy but enough to get us focused on shopping and return straight home.  

We stayed in, Lynda cooked a curried ground beef dish and were half way through Ozark on Netflix 

Here's an exterior view of the new buildings outside our apartment. Note the trees on the balconies  

Last visit, this path was fairly decrepit.  It's crack free and new planters. 

A nondescript walk into town 

Aldi on the right 

We just got to the entrance of the village and turned around by...drops...

Our neighbours 

 And an Aldi deal, 5 litres of wine, 9 euro, $12 Canadian.  No, I wasn't tempted to try it. 

Friday May 6

Lynda went downtown in the the morning on her own to do some mall shopping and see the new Downton Abbey movie in a theatre on Place DLC.   The movie is VOST, original voice, subtitles in French. 

I wandered up to the village to take photos, go to the bank machine and buy wine. And sat outside and read and relaxed. A Good Friday!

I walked in a loop, up into the village and down back along the river Lez.

Another large old farmhouse across from our building.

The new apartments, look how many have trees on their balconies. 

The main square 

The town hall

The main square 

A rare glimpse past a gate into a front courtyard of .... weeds!  Thus is why they gave walls and gates. 

Two things to note, the shell marking the pilgrims route and the marble edging. Nice has the same edging on their streets. Must be a huge quarry down  here pumping them out.  And the shells markers  the medieval pilgrims followed on their way through France to Spain. These are of course replica, but we've seen the original markers in some villages. 

Ready for lunch

Aldi

Along the river Lez 

Try pushing a baby pram on this winding street 

The Lez 

Who wouldn't want to say they own a Picasso?

The interior courtyard of the apartment complex, our path to the Carrefour and the tram.  This was just completed in the last 2 years, so the vegetation and trees have flourished. 

Lovely stand of irises

The tall pines must have been there already

Charles de Gaulle Tram stop 

Saturday May 7th 

Market day in Castelnau Le Lez

Beautiful morning, busy market.  We bought beans, potatoes and strawberries for my duck recipe for Sunday. 

I took a photo yesterday of the old town hall, today, here's the new one 

Our strawberries 

French fast food 

We bought strawberries, potatoes and beans at this stall, the longest line up because the prices were good and the vegetables looked fresh

Pick up a mattress at the market on your way home

Very creative patio. 

Lunch on the terrasse.  Today was warm, about 26 degrees, and that looks to be repeated for the next two weeks in the long range forecast 

The bottle of wine that our host left for us in the fridge for our arrival, translates to " Papa Chicken is a bit tipsy" 

We took the tram  to our friends Hubert and Christiane, they had just returned after a week of looking after grandchildren.  Lovely evening catching up after our last visit 3 years ago.  Christiane cooked a supper of beef daube, wonderful flavours.  The white wine was local, from the Pont du Gare région.  

Cheeses from 4 different regions in France. 

Sunday May 8th 

This afternoon we wandered around downtown.  It was very warm, 26c and sultry, and there's a lot of pollen in the air from trees and plants our systems are not used to, so, lots of sneezing  along the way  

We started at PDLC 

Every city, town and village has a white tourist train...

Another large people space.  Protests, markets all take place  here. 

In the distance is pic St Loup which is the local wine region. 

Food trucks. 

The law courts.

We had forgotten the whimsical "bikes in the wall: art. 

If you're thinking by now that every available square in town has a terrasse, you'd be right. 

A tromp d'œil painted on the wall

Probably am Airbnb in the arch..

And it didn't rain! 

Off PDLC is a long tree lined path with small terrasses. We stopped and had some wine and watched the people 

The continental is Frances answer to a "full English" 

The museum.  

Closest to landscaping we've seen 

And I'll leave you with this very brief video.  On the surface, it's cute, but it also shows how the natural world treats their fellow species. Whether it's ants, elephants or tortoises there's a strong instinct to help a fellow I'm need. You can almost imagine the look in the eyes of the other turtles, one of fear, determination and concern.   And who wouldn't want to be a turtle, born with your very own house on your back,  swim all day, and sit in the sun on a log for hours at a time, knowing that other turtles have your back (or shell)  if you go astray.

https://youtu.be/XADyw1tqG0k