French way of life

Thursday we decided to hang out in Montpellier, go to the tourist info again and see about any English speaking tours to a vineyard or wine tasting or such.  Wendy had signed us up for a day at a vineyard to pick grapes, learn about wine making and a have a harvest supper.  It was all paid for before we left Canada, but yesterday they emailed and cancelled because the weather report says severe rain storms next Sunday, the day of the event.  The tourist office doesn't seem to like to advertise their events - you have to actually go into the office and ask "do you have a wine tour or do you have a cheese tasting walk?"  When we asked, they said yes but it was yesterday.  Hmmmmm. There will be another one next week but it's with a private company and seems pretty pricey.  Much more than the one we just had cancelled.  So not sure what we will do about that.  Decided to think about it a bit.  

Our morning adventure today included purchasing a tram pass/ticket, good for10 rides.  Mary and Les, who stayed here for 9 months last year, had given us 2 tram tickets, so we were all set up for our first week.  Now we needed to buy more.  There is a machine at every tram stop.  It wasn't until we were standing in front of it we realized the machine did not take bills and gave no change. So for the first pass we had 5 x 2€ coins.  We got the card.  For the next pass we inserted a pile of coins - 10 € that we had scrapped together from all our coin.  After inserting 5.80€ the machine said that's it, it's done - transaction cancelled.  No ticket and nothing to show for our 5.80!  Not wanting to throw any more money in after it, we punched Wendy's card 2x and went downtown to the transit office.  About 30 other people were lined up waiting to be served and we found out there was a 30 minute wait to be served.  Not sure what it is that one does in this office that would take that long. The French love to chat and so even if there is a line up waiting to be served there is never a rush.  I went to the info desk and they said all I had to do was fill a form in French and provide my bank details and the money would be refunded into my account.  So two issues here - (a) write out our issue in French and (b) my bank details.  The receptionist finally went to the back of the office and brought a lovely young man who could deal with us.  It turns out the bank details are the transit number on our cheques plus my account number.  We never travel with cheques outside of Canada as they are useless so I had to come home, go online, find it that way.  I told the fellow that this was silly for 5€ and he agreed but said that is the way you have to do it.  The receptionist filled it in French for us.  Next problem was I still didn't have a pass.  So we went to a change machine in the office, and put in a 5€ note and out came a pile of coin, all 10 cent pieces. So with the other coin left from our first try we put 10€ into the ticket machine and it spit it all back out, because even though the change machine gave us all little coins, the ticket machine right beside it will not take more than 20 coins or it rejects all of it.   So you figure that out!  At the end of this experience we did have 2 passes but will have to wait to see if the balance of our money is refunded into my bank account. It will be fun to see if it does.  When these things happen when we travel we learn a little bit more about the culture we are visiting.  And one of the reasons we don't rent a car - we would miss out on all these fun interactions.

The rest of the day we spent wandering around the old town of Montpellier.  The streets are narrow and folks walk down the middle of them, shops and restaurants on both sides.  Then a car or truck will come down slowly and everyone just moves to the side and it weaves through.  Scooters and motor cycles are ever present.  

Funny little shops, always interesting.  This one is an old fashion sewing and needlework shop. I can't imagine how she can find anything.  Boxes of old Butterick patterns, sewing trims stacked together on shelves, needlework patterns hanging everywhere.  

We had lunch in a square in Antigone after walking through Galeries Lafayette thinking there would be some fun shopping there.  Not really.  Lunch was great though.  We went to a crepe place - sitting outside in the plaza where we had been at the market the day before.  Wendy had a galette, same kind as we had had in Normandy a couple of years ago: mushrooms, egg and creme fraiche.

I think I won again with raclette.  It was served very hot in a small casserole dish with baby potatoes, onions and covered with melted raclette cheese.  It was served with some ham and lettuce but I never got to that.  It was incredibly nummy but very rich.

A very interesting decorative feature in Montpellier is the trompe l'oeil (deceive the eye). This is a painting that has been done right on a blank wall of a building, and which provides an optical illusion. You have to look twice to see if it's real or not.  We have seen 3 in the city but I think there are 5 or 6.  You can see a real wIndow in amongst a painted window so you have to look twice or three times to figure out what is real. 

This building actually is painted to look like there is a reflection of St Roch cathedral in its windows.  Can you guess what part is real and what part painted?

A demain. 

Marion et Wendy