This title says it all. I love the city of Montpellier. It is truly one of the most charming cities I have ever had the chance of visiting, and even better: living in! There is so much history in this city, I feel like I could explore for days and still have missed another nook with something more. My friends and I have become more comfortable in navigating and exploring the city on our own, and have enjoyed being tourists a bit while we become more familiar. Just today, Jade and I wandered around after running some errands and were able to find the Post Office, on accident, as well as a book store with tons of office supplies, and yet another place to sit down and drink un chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) and eat a pastry. As much as I LOVE Chicago, Montpellier just has this great feeling to it. Yes, it is busy like any city, but there are hardly any cars and most people either walk or use public transit (the system is great here). It feels like people live a much more stress free life here, aside from when dealing with the University, and I have really come to enjoy the pace of things here. I really cannot do it justice here, and would love you all to visit to see what I mean.
As you might have seen, I had a trip to Avignon and Pont du Gard on Sunday, and both places took my breath away. For one, there are a million stairs and hills to climb, but better yet, at the top of these stairs and hills you can find incredible views that are truly indescribable. We visited the Palais des Papes with our pre-session group, and my friend and I both had a hard time believing how long the building had been standing and how much history and life it had experienced. Avignon itself was a quiet town that Sunday, but there were a few streets we walked down just to explore the area. The set up of each of these cities is just so completely different and in many ways, a lot more interesting. Yes, I understand the ease of having a grid-like city like Chicago, but Montpellier and Avignon both have these amazing little side streets with tons of life, but in any other city in the US would be an alley and void of anything interesting to find. Each little street I have been down has something interesting to it, and I have quickly fallen in love with getting lost in these towns for a bit. Pont du Gard was absolutely stunning. We climbed to the top of it by way of some really, really, old stairs within a forest to reach the top tier of the aqueduct. Once there, everyone forgot how out of breath they were, and started taking pictures. It is an incredibly windy area, and as some of you may know-- I have an intense fear of heights. Luckily, the wind didn't push me around hard enough to fall off the mini-mountain and I was able to see the incredible view from the top! Here are some pictures of the view I had: