Montpellier Mediterranee, in France

 I'm home again after 2 months in Montpellier Mediterranee, in southern France, and two weeks in Cairns in Far North Queensland at the beginning and the end of my travels. Singapore Airlines fly in and out of Cairns so I could fly out from there. Montpellier, Mediterranee, in southern France is very close to the Mediterranean coast, and is a beautiful city surrounded by many scenic areas, with a population of over 500,000. The food, and the fresh fruits and vegetables of Summer were everything that I hoped for. Over the next few weeks I'll share some of my French adventures and tales with you. 

As with anywhere in the world, the suburb you live in can determine how much you enjoy a visit to another region or country. I was fortunate that my son and his family live in a large house in a very nice suburb of Montpellier, within walking distance of two shopping centres and in different directions, one in an affluent and more upper class and expensive area, the other, in a more lower socio-economic area. Both provided quite unique experiences for me. I could also walk from there to catch the tram into the city.

You may remember that I only intended to visit my son and family over there for 1 month, however sadly after only 2 weeks into my stay my daughter-in-law had some very worrying news regarding her health, so I extended my stay for an extra month. Her treatment is still continuing and she is responding well. Despite all of this, particularly in the first few weeks of my stay, my son and I, and sometimes 7 year old Hugo and the twins as well, managed to occasionally dine out and eat some delicious French cuisine and travel to some beautiful areas.  By the end of my stay, my limited French had improved and I was passing for a local even though I always found someone who could speak understandable English. Tourists were even asking me for directions, which I thought was hilarious, and sometimes I could actually give them the correct answer. By the end of my stay, I felt more like a local than a tourist, despite my very limited French.

 Civic Centre in Montpellier

The Post Office

A beautiful and everchanging display around the Louis Vuitton entrance at Singapore Changi airport. This one was particularly striking and looked like an actual aquarium. I was in a real rush to find the gate to catch my connecting flight back to Cairns, but just had to stop and take a photo. No time for shopping unfortunately. There's only a changeover of about 90 minutes at Changi, and I also had to catch the Skyrail to my Departure Gate.

If I thought I was lost in the old city of Montpellier, I would follow the tram tracks back to the Comedie, which is right in the Centre of Montpellier, from where I always caught the tram home.

Montpellier has its very own Arc de Triomphe, although a lot smaller than the one in Paris. It was very difficult to avoid tourists and locals in some of my photos.

Every Wednesday morning, I walked with Hugo down to the local Tennis Club at for his Clay Court tennis lesson, where I would enjoy a coffee and a chat with Elian, one of the other Grandmothers who was French and beautiful. Google Translate often came to the rescue for me during our conversations. I perfected, I thought, how to ask for a cup of coffee in French, although my Aussie accent was always going to let me down, however they were very sweet and understanding and I was proud of my limited French, until one well meaning and very nice French bar attendant at the Tennis centre, came up to me and said in perfect English with a smile, "There's no need to speak in French, I speak English". I was somewhat deflated, however every week I still persisted and asked for a  large cup of coffee in French, as I had been told to by a French friend, with my hand indicating just how big I wanted the coffee.  "Je voudrais acheter un grand cafe du lait, s'il vous plait". 

This bookshop in the old town was  a lovely discovery. I felt right at home here, and surprisingly a lot of the books were in English. I enjoyed a lovely cup of tea and a pastry with Matthew in the little street in front of the Bookshop.

Once I discovered the very reliable Montpellier trams, mine was the blue one enroute to the Odysseum via the city centre, I became quite comfortable with travelling into the old city of Montpellier, and one of my favourite memories was visiting the iconic Halles Castellane market. What a great experience, to discuss the recipe for Ratatouille with the stall owner while I was buying the eggplant, the tomatoes, the garlic and the capsicum. He spoke English and said to me, you will need some of this as well, and threw in some fresh parsley, gratis. It was a shame really that I was walking back to catch the tram and then it's an uphill walk to my French home so I was always careful not to buy too much. All of those fabulous stalls were very tempting though. Oh the amazing selection of cheeses, saucisson, Spanish hams, and beautiful fresh salads.

 

I bought tomatoes from this exact tray to make my Ratatouille. They keep fresh for ages.

The fresh tomatoes, of all varieties, were absolutely delicious, and I think were what made the difference with the Ratatouille being probably the best I have ever made. I'm not sure whether the tomatoes were grown in France or came from Spain. The tomatoes should be ripe and full of flavour. I made Ratatouille one evening when Myrtille's mother was visiting. It did occur to me that here was I, an Aussie, cooking an iconic French vegetarian dish for two French ladies. A bit cheeky perhaps, but Catherine is a vegetarian and doesn't cook very much anymore, so they were very appreciative. I asked her whether when she used to cook the occasional Ratatouille if she added the vegetables gradually, as I like to do to preserve the individual textures, or if she cooked them all up together. Her answer was that it depended on how much time she had, and that is probably what often happens in the average busy French kitchen.

So many French cheeses, butters and other dairy products

Where the customer with the mask is standing at the stall counter, is exactly where I was standing when I bought my Ratatouille ingredients and the lovely young mademoiselle and the owner of the stall served me.

The many varieties of French Saucisson are delicious, and are eaten in many ways, whether it is on a cheese platter, with a baguette, or with a Summer salad.

Meat is expensive.

Beautiful flowers are for sale everywhere, being Summer over there. I was really surprised to see so many lovely potted orchids for sale.

 I thought I had already posted my recipe for vegetarian Ratatouille, using Stephanie Alexander's recipe, which is the one I used in my Montpellier kitchen, but I haven't written it up even though I have made it numerous times. I'll rectify that in the next couple of weeks and post the recipe for you.  Our twins who are now four years old loved it as well.

Home made Ratatouille made using French ingredients from Halles Castellane market

A message to my blogging friends whose blogs I follow, when I was living in Montpellier, I didn't have access to a computer, only my phone and a tablet, and not much extra time at my disposal either. So although I read a lot of your amazing and very interesting blog posts, I didn't comment on many. And of course without a computer I wasn't in a position to write any blog posts. I'm slowly catching up.

Just window shopping a selection of pastries at a local patisserie.

A delicious spreadable duck terrine from the supermarket

I never tired of seeing signage which was a reminder of the rich cultural and musical heritage in France. I passed this sign every day when I was walking my grandchildren to and from school.

Enjoying a platter of delicious local Montpellier seafood at home, however to be honest the little sea snails in the shells didn't do a lot for me, but the fresh oysters and prawns were delicious.

Sète

There was more delicious seafood from the Mediterranean and beautiful scenery when we took a day trip to the old Mediterranean fishing village of Sète

Enjoying a seafood lunch with Matthew and Hugo in Sète

Those sea snails in shells again. I'm still not a fan, however the oysters and prawns were delicious.

Hugo was more interested in exploring the anatomy of the sardines than with eating them. They weren't my favourite either. Lots of very fine bones.

A fisherman's cat.

I also discovered a lovely art gallery in Sète, while Matthew took Hugo fishing.

Just inside the entrance

At a local group of shops that I loved to walk to in the Aiguelongue, I watched the baker in action baking the baguettes. Fascinating. 

 

At another patisserie only two shops away, I became a fan of the Tarte Citron, the best I have ever eaten. Not surprising eh?

Oui, delicieux.

Hope to see you soon,

Pauline