Montpellier

Our first stop of the trip was Montpellier. The city is roughly 3 1/2 hours from Clermont. On the way though, we drove through some very pretty Auvergne (our region) countryside and also saw the The Millau Bridge - highest road bridge in the world. We arrived precisely at rush hour. Unfortunately we also drove around the exterior of the city for an hour and a half trying to find our hostel. We called and asked them how to get there and they told us, only 30 min later I had the revelation that they might have thought we were on foot instead of driving. Dope! So we called back and they told us it wasn't accessible by car because it was in the centre ville, which was a pedestrian area. Alas, an extremely frustrated Kate parked the car and we walked across the city to the hostel. There were some fun sights along the way though. We saw the Arc de Triomphe Montpellier style. And also this statue that was overlooking the arcades. We thought it must have been a Louis because aren't all the old French rulers Louises? ( I have no idea how to write the plural of Louis) But it wasn't, it was Octavio something-or-other. Ok, so I didn't exactly catch his name. But he was presiding over that side of Montpellier. I lso thought it was interesting that the street lights were blue.
We had some dinner in a little square close to our hostel and then went to the Place de Comedie. It looked a lot like the big place in Clermont. Neat to see though. We concluded the night with a well-deserved beer in a square full of younger people out on the terraces enjoying the beautiful night. What a start to the trip!