le blog

Today is my last full day in Montpellier...I leave early tomorrow morning to head back to Paris, then Saturday morning...home!! It has been a wonderful trip, but I am very ready to be home. I miss my family, my Lila, and my bed. It is as exhausting as it is amazing to be in a strange place (especially when you're as directionally challenged as I am!) where you don't speak the language well. I definitely crave the familiarity of home.  It has rained off and on since last night, and this morning as I was sipping my coffee, I looked out my window. It had just stopped raining and this was my stunning view: In between bouts of rain, I managed to get out and walk around one last time. I went to a part of Montpellier I had not yet been to and ended up walking by the park where they were setting up for the Christmas Market. I am going to miss them by a week, and am so bummed about that. I have stumbled across the set up of markets in Paris and Lyon, as wel

I am less than 10 miles from the Mediterranean Sea, so I was bent on finding a way to see it. It would be wrong to be so close and not at least look at it, right? Since I am not particularly adept at figuring out maps and directions, I was reluctant to try and do the bus thing...too many transfers = too many chances to get lost. So, I took a train to the seaside town of Sète, which is only 15 minutes from Montpellier.       Long story short - I got a fleeting glimpse of the Mediterranean as my high speed train zoomed by. Sète is a coastal town, but the sea is a good distance from the train station, but due to the train schedule I had only allotted myself an hour in Sète. There was no physical way for me to get to the sea and back for my train on time. The good news is that there are many inlets and canals throughout the parts of town I did have the time to see. Even better - they were very lovely... particularly as the sun was beginning to set. 

     I boarded the TGV (train) in Montpellier at 6:25 a.m. and by 8:20 a.m. I was in Lyon. Three cheers for the European train system!!      I had a very difficult time finding my way out of the Lyon Part Dieu train station (this seems to be a theme for me...) But, one grumpy station worker and two lovely Frenchmen later, I was on the metro to Place Bellecour in the heart of Lyon.  my first view of Lyon standing in Place Bellecour     One of the Frenchmen asked me if I was in Lyon on business. I said I was touring but as a historian and that I studied the Résistance. He was VERY excited and chatted with me a few moments about Lyon's Résistance movement (de Gaulle dubbed Lyon the Résistance capital) and about Jean Moulin and Klaus Barbie. De Gaulle sent Moulin into France to unite the unorganized, often chaotic, resistance movement. He was successful, but while in Lyon he was betrayed by a fellow résistant. Moulin was arrested and tortured by Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie, the