After visiting Avignon and Pont du Gard, I was keen to visit Nîmes, but I struggled to find somewhere to stay close to the centre. This was a theme I was to experience time and time again on this trip. It’s understandable that many campsites are not open during March, but there is also a shortage of aires in the popular towns and cities.
Instead, I decided to visit Montpellier because there was an aire close to the centre of town and a language exchange Meetup group that evening would provide me with an opportunity to practice my French.
I arrived at the aire to find a rather dilapidated car park. I didn’t feel comfortable stay there, so like always, I moved on. I also had coordinates for a campsite, but they were quite confusing and I ended up driving into a cemetery. Finding it quite difficult to turn around on the narrow roads, I ended up blocking the only road for a while. I’m grateful a funeral procession didn’t enter at this time, as that would have had a large element of slapstick comedy, as I tried to find another exit and subsequently had to perform a multi-point turn to go out the same way I entered, all whilst avoiding the gravestones. I never did find that campsite…
Eventually and after much swearing and frustration, I happened upon an open campsite close to Lattes, Le Parc. It was a typical campsite for the area and it was close to the tram line, which covers the 5 km to Montpellier.
Montpellier has quite a large student population, which helps to make this quite a vibrant city. Most of the action centres around the Place de la Comedie, with bars and restaurants occupying the square, or maybe I should call it the oval, in reference to its popular reference ‘L’Oeuf’.
I would definitely visit Montpellier again, I didn’t think one day was quite enough to satisfy my curiosity and maybe next time I will head further south.
