Montpellier Marathon

Back in August when we were on holiday in Spain an email popped into my inbox from Aidan of Conjugating Irregular Verbs inviting me to a Blogapalooza in Montpellier. I had enviously read about these ex-pat gatherings before thinking how fun it would be to meet some of my favourite bloggers in person so I jumped at the chance to attend. I waited nervously to see if Aidan would choose the weekend I was available in October which she did, and then waited a bit more while Keith heroically adjusted his business travel so that he could be back in France to look after the kids. I booked a train ticket and a hotel room, arranged sleepovers for the big girls and childcare for Florence and packed my bags.


On the Friday morning that I was due to leave for my weekend away, Florence woke up with a temperature and my jaunt to the South of France seemed doomed. All was not lost however as my mother's sixth sense had caused me to book the more expensive train ticket, changeable right up to the minute of departure and I had followed Kirsty's advice to book the hotel through Bookings.com which also allows free last minute cancellations. Half an hour on the computer and I had rearranged my trip to start on the 8:06 out of Gare de Lyon on Saturday morning when Daddy would be home all day to look after the girls.


It's an easy three and a half hours on the train from Paris to Montpellier so I was there in plenty of time for lunch at Chez Boris where I was reunited with Kirsty and Jennifer who I've met before in real life and met Aidan, Karen, Julie, Sarah, Heather, Jennifer, Abby, Meredith and Colleen for the first time. With Florence continuing to be sick all last week, I'm late to the party in posting about the lunch, but Kirsty captured the event perfectly and her photos came out much better than mine! Suffice to say I had a wonderful time and four hours never passed so quickly. It was such a treat to have been included and it was a pleasure to meet so many lovely ladies and hear about all their different yet similar experiences of living in France.


That evening after everyone else had gone home I went out by myself to find dinner. Montpellier is a university town and has a lively nightlife. I wasn't entirely comfortable being out on my own (which made me glad I hadn't also spent Friday night there alone as originally planned) and after a simple dinner I headed off for an early night.


I stayed in the Hotel Eurociel which just opened this year and was well reviewed as a place to stay for lone travellers. It was clean and comfortable and just a few minutes walk from Place de la Comédie, Montpellier's centre. Each floor was named after a different European country. I was on the Greek floor in the Kos bedroom. The next morning as I checked out I noticed that in addition to London, Cardiff and a few other well known British cities one of the rooms on the British floor was named Jersey. If I ever go back I will have to request that room and I'm sure I'll feel right at home!


At the lunch, Kirsty had tried to persuade me to get up at the crack of dawn on Sunday to make the most of the light to better photograph historic Montpellier. Having had to get up before sunrise the day before to make my early train, I didn't quite fancy another pre-dawn alarm, but I did get going quite early to explore the city by day. I set out to the sounds of church bells ringing for morning mass.

Quite a contrast to the sounds of busy nightlife that had accompanied my walk home the night before. Now the bustling, slightly seedy neighbourhood of my hotel was shuttered and quiet.


In the daylight I could relax and admire it's faded charm and gorgeous details.


I arrived in Place de la Comédie just in time for the start of the Montpellier marathon.

Once all the runners were on their way I found myself a café in the main square.


And sat down for breakfast and a spot of people watching.

Fortified by my café au lait, croissant and baguette slathered in Nutella I was ready to spend the rest of the morning exploring the maze of streets and alleys in Montpellier's old town.



A place where people grow oranges on their balconies.

Ironwork...

...and lace.

The streets were deserted except for this man in a top hat carrying a bunch of pink balloons! Qu'est-ce qui se passe?


All the shops were shut which certainly saved me some money, but I wish I had found this lovely little mercerie 'Before & After' on Saturday.


Look at those gorgeous buttons!

As I had my nose pressed to the window of the fabric store I could hear the strains of organ music coming from the church of Saint Roch.


Sunday morning mass was nearly over in this nineteenth century church built along the route of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

French friends leaving church.

I spent the rest of the morning wandering the streets getting to know Montpellier and really starting to like it.

Stumbled across some fun street art. Maybe it was a sign as when I got home I discovered that Keith had spent the weekend buying Georgia & Savannah new bikes. Impressive on his own with four kids in tow!

More by luck than planning I arrived back in Place de la Comédie just as the first runners finished the marathon. Three hours pounding the streets of Montpellier and I didn't even break a sweat!

After my marathon photography session, it was time to find my way back to the train station and leave the tropical south for rainy Paris. I feel so lucky to have had this weekend away. Thanks so much to Aidan for inviting me to her gorgeous home town and to Keith for holding the fort back home.