So I haven't talked about my homestay home/family yet, but I am really happy with where I am! I live with a middle-aged woman in an appartment in centre-ville (basically, downtown). It's about a minute and a half walk from Accent Français, where I will be taking the bulk of my classes. I'm definitely fortunate to live in such a convenient location--many of the other students have to take longer walks, busses, and/or the tramway.
But, I feel the best way to discover a city is to walk through it. Because the two places I will be the most are so near each other, I know I will have to make more of an effort to get to know my way around Montpellier. It is for this reason that I offered to walk with a friend home! Michelle's place was difficult to use a map to find because she had to use two different sections of the map: one to navigate centre-ville and the other to navigate past centre-ville to her apartment. I've navigated Chicago, Washington, DC, and New York on my own, so I was pretty confident in my orienteering skills. But, as I had done little walking through Montpellier, I soon realized that it would not be as easy as I had imagined. We, as Americans, are used to cities (like Chicago, DC, and NYC) that are laid out on grids. Montpellier, an old Medieval town, is nothing like that. Centre-ville is a maze of winding alleys with street signs that are hard to find and sometimes nonexistent. I soon realized why so many people were talking about their difficulties getting around. As Michelle and I wandered our way through the alleys, I was thinking in the back of my head "how on Earth am I going to find my way back?"
Night had fallen by the time we reached Michelle's apartment. We stood in the alley for about five minutes trying to devise a plan for me to get back to la Place de la Comédie which is basically "the pit" of Montpellier (only it's much larger and cooler and way more French). I spent this time struggling with an old map (one of those ones that you can never refold) while Michelle tried to look up a route on Google maps. The route had so many road names that I thought it would be too difficult to memorize it. I decided to just go for it and try to remember my way back.
With pep in my step and my eyes fixed in a withering stare (I'm still a little hyper-cautious of unwanted advances), I successfully navigated my way back to the center of town. This time I got to enjoy how beautiful the marble alleys look at night. The shop lights glittered like jewels, the snippets of french conversation enriched my french vocabulary, and the sweet and savory smells wafting from the boulangeries (bakeries), crêperies, and cafés made me hungry for dinner! I can't wait to keep exploring MPL!
La place de la Comédie
L'opéra comédie
La rue de la loge (the streets I was navigating through were much narrower than this)
Nice pictures! I'm glad you are enjoying it so far. Have you officially started classes yet?
ReplyDeleteNot yet, we start on Monday. I'm taking three courses at a language academy in centre-ville and two courses at the university which is in the northern part of the city.
ReplyDelete