Miguel arrives! Montpellier & Arles

On July 19, Miguel arrived in Montpellier! We spent two nights in town before heading off on our Provence tour.


Miguel in front of fountain, Antigone, Montpellier.


Denis and me in Jardin des Plantes


Miguel in Jardin des Plantes


Denis and me in Le Heaven bar.

After a couple of fun days in Montpellier, during which we managed to sleep through the highest profile event happening in the city all year (namely the arrival and departure ceremonies as the Tour de France passed through the city), we left for our Provence tour. We spent Saturday afternoon at L’Espiguette beach, then continued on to Mas du Petit Grava, a small guesthouse just outside Arles.

Miguel and I loved Mas du Petit Grava! It's a converted centuries-old farmhouse in the countryside near Arles, owned and operated by an incredibly friendly and welcoming couple, Jim & Ike. We really felt like we were staying with old friends who just happened to have a gorgeous home in the heart of Provence.

Miguel in front of Les Arènes, the 1st Century amphitheater in Arles, where they still host bullfights each summer.

Me in old Arles

Miguel in Arles

Nighttime street scene in Arles, the inspiration for many of Van Gogh's later paintings.

One of the best meals Miguel and I had on our trip was sidewalk dining at a pizzeria in Maussane les Alpilles, just a short drive from Arles.

Having evening wine, cheese & fruit -- and good conversation -- with our hosts and some of their friends.

Miguel with a new friend at the Mas.

Ike, Jim, me and Miguel just before we left Mas du Petit Grava for our drive to Avignon. I really hope to return for another stay in the near future. :o)

Next stop: Avignon!

Salon-de-Provence & Montpellier

Over the weekend of June 29 - July 1, I paid a visit to Sandrine and Michael in Pelissanne, France, just outside Salon-de-Provence. It was so awesome to see these guys, who were of course the ones responsible for me winding up in Montpellier in the first place! (I'm not sure whether I mentioned this on the blog or not, but back in February in Pipa, Brazil, on the same day I found I had been accepted to HEC, I asked Sandrine and Michael where they thought I should spend the summer in France to take language courses, get acclimated, etc., and they recommended Montpellier. So even though I had never visited before, I took their advice and here I am! (And quite glad about it to boot!))


Sandrine and Michael in Salon. In addition to putting me up for the weekend in their home, cooking for me and generally being totally awesome people, Sandrine and Michael also took me into Salon-de-Provence on Saturday for the "Reconstitution Historique" festival, during which the whole town embraces its medieval roots.


The Reconstitution Historique had all sorts of exciting things on offer, including:


...big, scary bulls running loose in the streets (well, more ambling than running, but those horns are scary, no?), and...

...traditional medieval music complete with lutes and bagpipes and tights, oh my! ...and...

...silversmiths working in the traditional method (kinda makes you wonder what this guy is up to when there's no "Reconstitution Historique" going on, you know?) ... and...

...goose charmers... (see video below) ...

Have you ever seen such well-behaved geese?

We dined al fresco at twilight, and then strolled around a bit more...


...enjoying the acrobatics and saffron drapery.

Michael unleashing his inner paladin.

After having a fabulous time catching up with Sandrine and Michael, it was back to Montpellier for my final 3 weeks. Here are some snapshots of the city

St. Pierre's Cathedral

St. Anne's Church

Part of the monastery at Maguelone, about 15km south of Montpellier, right by the beach. This was part of a 6-hour bike ride I took all around the seaside nearby. Good stuff. :-)

Sunset over the Arc de Triomphe in Montpellier.

Inside of PopArt (again) -- one of my favorite haunts for daytime people-watching and web-surfing, and nighttime high jinks.

Laurent and me

Me and Nico

On Bastille Day, Denis and I took a trip to Sete.

Denis and me in Sete, with the Mediterranean behind us.

As night fell, we found the perfect sidewalk cafe for watching the fireworks:

Bastille Day fireworks in Sete, France.

But sadly, it seems that all good things must come to an end, and so it is with my sojourn in Montpellier. Next up, Miguel arrives and we tackle Provence!

Barcelona, Spain!

My first French course at the Alliance Francaise in Montpellier ended on Friday, June 22, and my second course would not begin until Monday, July 2. Since I had the week free, I decided to hop a train down to Barcelona to hang out for a few days and pay a visit to ESADE, an MBA school with which I'm toying with the idea of doing an exchange while I'm at HEC.



In honor of returning to People Lounge for the first time since I was there with Miguel last September, I had my first cosmopolitan since arriving in Europe. Sadly, it wasn't very good, and made me long for those fabulous $6 Ketel One Cosmos at Therapy on monday nights.



While I was in Barcelona, I popped down to the beach at Sitges for a daytrip. Here I am wearing a characteristically subtle outfit, with the Mediterranean behind me.

Me in Sitges with the church and LaPunta stairs behind me.

Then it was back to Barcelona for my visit to ESADE. ESADE was the only other European MBA program that really appealed to me as I was applying to HEC (where I have now committed to attend starting this fall). But given the fact that I speak a a little bit of French but no Spanish, I thought France would probably be the more logical choice. I was really torn about the decision, however, and after sending in my tuition deposit to HEC, I started percolating on the possibility of pursuing either an exchange or dual degree between the two schools. So I decided to embark on a little reconnaissance mission and check the school out. I visited the campus and met with representatives from the admissions office, and was very impressed and got a very good vibe of the place. The school's reputation and curriculum both sound great to me, and the facilities and location and views from the school are all pretty fab. And of course Barcelona is extremely appealing in its own right. So there you have it. I'm definitely strongly considering the possibility of a dual degree or exchange between HEC & ESADE, but fortunately it doesn't look like I would need to do anything concrete until the very end of the year in terms of applying, so I have some time to mull it over. (One rather intimidating aspect of such an undertaking is that it would probably require becoming proficient in not only French, but Spanish as well...)


One thing Barcelona has in spades is innovative architecture, and ESADE is no exception. Here's the entrance hall to the MBA building. (It was even more George Lucasy in person...)

After my ESADE visit, I did a little sightseeing around Barcelona, riding in my very first topless bus:

Here's the topless bus I took to tour around Montjuic.

View to the Mediterranean from Montjuic.

Here's a shot of me taken at Castell de Montjuïc, with the city of Barcelona in the background. The views from up there, overlooking the city and the sea, were incredible. Of course it was also pushing 100 degrees and I was -- as usual -- dressed inappropriated in black jeans.

One of the odd things about Barcelona was that there were a number of splendiferous fountains -- such as this one -- in the large central plazas. What's odd about them is that they appear to be filled with urine. (Maybe it's to discourage someone, such as myself, who might be jonesing for a quick cooldown in the intense heat. )

The only eventful part of my trip back to Montpellier was that our train broke down in La Franqui, a tiny village 1.5 hours west of Montpellier. It was mid-day, well into the 90's, not a cloud in the sky, and for all of these reasons, unbearably hot. We were all forced to get out of the train, cross the bridge to the other platform, stand in the sun for an hour and change, then cross back to the other side, stand in the sun for a while, then cross back, wait a bit, then cross back again. Everyone tried to huddle under whatever little shade there was, but there just wasn't enough, and in the end we waited about 3 hours before a train finally arrived to bring us the rest of the way to Montpellier. Kind of a pain in the tuchus, but given other folks' reactions, it clearly was not that much of an anomoly.

Stranded in La Franqui.

Next up, a visit to Salon-de-Provence and final weeks in Montpellier!

More on Montpellier, France

When we last left our hero, he was snarfing some puffy pink barbe de papa during gay pride. Despite this, we rejoin him anyway, as he continues to savor every fantabulous moment of this fantabulous summer in the fantabulous city of Montpellier.


Denis and me at Nicholas' apt. This is an absolutely horrendous photo of me, but Denis, of course, is adorable and I'm smitten, so I'm including it anyway. :-)

In honor of the end of my French class at the Alliance Francaise, a bunch of us got together for a farewell dinner on June 20.

Nicola and me at dinner

Me and Antonio, who turned into a great friend over the 4-week course. He and I both resided at the Protestant Theological School (yes, I know...) and got to hang out quite a bit. He was also horrified by my preternatural daily consumption of cereal, and insisted on making me authentic Italian lunches from scratch more times than I can count. After our French course, he was going to head back to Italy for a week before going to London for an English course, all in preparation for his bright future career in international relations. I hope we get to hang out again sometime soon, which seems likely, as I'm learning Europe is a very small place. :-)

Some more Alliance Francaise folks, representing USA (duh, that's me), Hong Kong, Brazil and Italy. I was really impressed with the diversity at the school, and was surprised that I always seemed to be the only American (but I suppose that's a good thing, as it just forces me to really only speak French).

The next day was perhaps the biggest party night of the year for Montpellier: the Fete de la Musique. In honor of Summer Solstice, the whole city becomes a massive dance party with every type of music imaginable, most of it live, being performed in the streets, in the plazas, in the courtyards, etc. If you're not a huge fan of what you're hearing, just walk a few feet further on and you'll hear something completely different. Evidently, this goes on in lots of cities around France, but I'd never seen anything like it. I hit the streets with Denis and his awesome rocker-chick friend, Christelle, to take it all in. We were soon joined by Nicholas and another friend of ours, Laurent, and basically had a blast until the wee hours. Here are some pics from the evening:

Denis and Christelle

Nicholas and Laurent

VIDEO

Here is a little video I took of a particularly trippy corner of the fete, at the Tour de la Babote in Montpellier.

Christelle, Denis and me at Fete de la Musique, ushering in the summer in style! (Apparently, we all felt the need to smush our heads together for fear of not making it into the photo.)

Next up, trips to Barcelona and Salon-de-Provence!