Montpellier

My last week à Accent Francais and I am finally working out how to use these Apple computers at the school. The challenge of having a different French keyboard as well doesn't make for ease of use.

My camera is now working again, after a hitch with the memory card. Unfortunately I lost all the shots of Marseille and some lovely photos of my Servas host Natacha and her cat Laura. I am disappointed as there were some beautiful views of Marseille and also of an exhibition of pottery on the theme of animals, at a very interesting gallery in the old port district. The work was stunning. I was looking forward to showing the photos to the potters at home.

Marseille was fascinating, very working class, very much a Mediterrranean port and very historic. I was fascinated. A daily fish market is held alongside the fishing boats in the center of the old port. Of course the colourful photos I took are lost forever!
Michel showed me a book of historic photos of Marseille last night and I was interested to recognise some of the places I had visited, as they looked many years ago. Being here, it is not hard to appreicate just what it was like in times past, as many of the buildings are as they were, even if the surroundings have changed.

Montpellier is quite different. Smaller and cleaner and very nice! All the buildings are pink, cream, white or yellow and the newer structures blend well with the magnificent old buildings.
It is all very airy and light, with tall, shady plane trees lining the avenues, colourful flowers and the street sweepers constantly clean up the streets. The sea is 15km away but the town has a definite Sud de France feeling.
We haven't managed to get there yet, as it rained yesterday and our trip to Palevas was cancelled.

I am very impressed by the public transport system. There are two tram routes, the blue Ligne 1; blue trams with white birds and the orange ligne 2, with flamboyant yellow, red and orange flowers all over the trams.
There is even grass between some of the lines, which is kept tidy by a man on a ride on mower!

If I leave home at 8:35, I walk about 100m, the bus comes at 8:38. Two stops later I hop off onto the line 2 tram, a few minutes later I change at the Corum to the line 1 tram, then one stop (through a tunnel) et voila! I am in the beautiful Place De La Comedie, always by 9:10. The school is about 25 metres away. Most bus and tram stops have an electronic indicator telling you when the next trams or buses arrive. It is all very civilised!

Of course on Thursdays there is usually le Gréve, whch means a much reduced service and much frustration. But "c'est la France!"