Montpellier
Monday, August 22, 2005
Arriving at the Montpellier main station around 11am, our main goal was accommodation. This station was in line with the rest of Europe and had a tourist information office not just in the station but marked as well! Although they didn’t make the call for us we were advised of all the accommodation that was close to the station within our budget. We decided to call the very closest of the hotels which also happened to be the cheapest but we had been told that this was by no means reflected in the service or quality of the rooms as it had been recently done up. We got there last room luckily with a bathroom inside the bedroom, so feeling once again at ease we made the 3 minute walk to the hotel. Well it actually turned into a two minute walk and we were greeted by a very professional looking atrium. Booking in, we headed for the room to dump our packs and head out into the beautiful sunny day. Montpellier is a wonderful city, definitely a shopping city but has a lot to offer. There are pleasant parks, café’s spilling out onto cobbled squares with fountains and the occasional merry go round, as well as very modern shopping malls. Bearing in mind that I haven’t been into a mall since Thailand, I was keen to have a look as it was a bit of a walk and thought it would be a nice way to see the city as well. After getting to the mall and having a bit of a look around we started to get hungry… so we started looking around for something good to eat. There wasn’t a food court, just food shops dotted through the mall but we came across a place called Flunch. This was kinda like a buffet but cooler in a way. There are two stages; you first get the drink that you want - they have all that you could imagine including alcohol, and desert if you want it. You then pay for what you have on your tray, as well as what would like as a meat; this could be a variety of chicken, fish or steak. Once you have paid for this you take your ticket to the next area and give the ticket to the ‘chef’ who cooks the meat to your liking right there in front of you, once its cooked they simply hand you the plate with the meat on it then you walk over to a buffet area that has all sorts of cooked vegetables, salads and varieties of potatoes you get to help yourself to as much as you want. We got huge meals; Sarah went for the roast chicken and I went for the steak, both of us filling our plates with carrots, peas, beans and fries, they even had the best peppercorn sauce I’ve had in ages. Has to be the biggest lunch we’ve had on our holiday – and it only can to 14 Euro; just slightly more than what we’ve been paying for a kebab each. We liked it so much we went back for dinner after spending another hour or so walking around the city and the late afternoon at an internet café.
Isn´t that Weird!
One of the nice courtyards.
posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm,
