Written by: Paul
Ah, visitors. As expats with no good friends in our new city, we LOVE having visitors. It gives us an opportunity to have conversations in English, we can enjoy showing off our new country, and it usually provides us with an excuse to run to the bakery and pick up enough pain au chocolat to choke a small panda.
September, our ninth month in France, was the month of visitors, and we could not have been happier.
In September we would welcome five guests to Montpellier – Angela’s brother, her parents, her uncle, and her aunt – needless to say, a busy month. We’d been bragging about France since before we moved here, so now we had an opportunity to take our family to all of our favourite spots and show them the highlights in person.
In doing so we would cover a fair amount of ground, from Montpellier to Sète, Carcassonne, Aigues-Mortes, Grande Motte, Palavas-les-Flots, and Paris…it was a fantastic month for exploring southwestern France and the City of Light.
Montpellier
Each month I write a bit about Montpellier and our experience in our new town. In the case of September, this is a logical place to start as that’s where we began September before zipping about the countryside with our happy band of Canucks.
The weather was still hot early in September – routinely 25-30 degrees Celcius, so we enjoyed working out along the River Lez and hitting our usual markets and events. Angela’s brother, Kevin, arrived at the end of the first week – perfect timing for us to show off our favourite restaurants and places to hang out, like the Marché du Lez – a great spot for food trucks, drinks, and angel wing pics.
We also enjoyed taking everyone to all of the usual Montpellier highlight spots – Place de la Comédie, Promenade du Peyrou, the écusson for shopping and eating. The écusson, or old city centre, provides all the cobblestones and quaintness visitors look for when visiting old French cities, so we love spending time there.
Of course we hit our favourite restaurants including Koffee & Kitchen in Antigone (a place we go to every week for an event we affectionately call “Burger Friday”) and Bistro Sainte Anne (for “Salade Samedi”), which sits in the shadow of Église Saint Anne in the heart of the old city.
One unexpected highlight was an event that happened all over France called “Journées européennes du patrimoine” which gives people access to buildings and other places that are ordinarily closed off to the public. In Toronto we had something similar called “Open Doors Toronto”.
In this case, we were able to check out the Montpellier Opera, go up the Arc du Triomph, and check out the offices of the Hotel du Region. The views from the top of the Arc were pretty great.
Travel
Our first trip during “friends and family month” was one of our favourite spots in southern France – Carcassonne.
Angela’s brother, Kevin, was the first of our guests to arrive, and he had never been to Carcassonne, so off we went. It’s an easy hour and a half by train from Montpellier, so it makes for a great day trip.
We got there only to learn that our afternoon train was cancelled thanks to strikes (strikes are easily one of the most annoying things about living in France), so we had to reschedule upon our arrival. Re-scheduling wasn’t the breeze it should have been, though because all of the ticketing staff were taking a smoke break so none of the windows were open. Awesome. It took more than hour for someone to serve us, but we did manage to find a way home, which was certainly a win.
So we got our Carcassonne on, climbed hills, explored the walled city, ate dried meats. It was a good day, and I think Carcassonne was a city that Kevin enjoyed. It’s hard not to – it’s like walking around in a big fairytale. We wrote extensively about our two-day trip to Carcassonne in an earlier post here, so please feel free to read that post if Carcassonne seems like your cup of tea.
A few days later Angela’s parents arrived. After showing them the highlights of Montpellier we hit the road for a quick trip to Sète, a port city not far from us. Sète is gorgeous – offering canals, views of the Med, cool little shops, and some great restaurants.
While there we took in an exhibition where a high wire walker was, well, walking on a high wire. He crossed one of the city’s major canals, making for an unexpected spectacle in a city that was already spectacular, so it was a day for filling our eyeballs with interesting things.
A few days later Angela’s brother zipped back to Canada but her aunt Kathy arrived from Ottawa to replace him…and then – surprise! – her uncle Pat showed up. No one knew he was coming to Montpellier but the two of us. For months Angela and I had kept the secret, so when he showed up in southern France to surprise the rest of the family the reactions were epic…I think Angela’s dad’s jaw is STILL on the ground.
La Grande Motte, a seaside resort town not far from Montpellier was the first stop for our newly formed group of travelers. La Grande Motte is a funky place, with unique art deco style architecture and a marina stocked with boats (excuse me, yachts) that are way outside my price range. We wandered along the boardwalk, grabbed a jambon beurre and happily munched on our sandwiches as we explored. It was a day made for moseying along the Mediterranean.
When you have visitors in France, many of whom have never been to this country, it’s inevitable that you’re going to end up in Paris. A few days after visiting La Grande Motte we packed up our gear and zipped up to Paris via train. The ride is about three and a half hours, an easy ride on a comfortable train. We arrived at Gare de Lyon mid-afternoon and then took the subway over to our hotel, Citadines Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Citadines is in an amazing location, right on the Seine, a stone’s throw from Notre Dame.
Our first night we explored the enchanting Sainte Chapelle and then wandered through the Latin Quarter and the area around Notre Dame. It was a warm night with no wind, everyone was in a good mood, and the city shone as only Paris can. At the risk of gushing a bit too much, it really was the kind of evening you visualize when you dream about visiting Paris. It was also a great night for photography.
The rest of the week was action packed. It was important for Angela and I to show the best of Paris to her family, so we covered a fair amount of ground in a relatively short time.
We were proud of Paris and proud of the country we had chosen to live in, so we wanted everyone to love it. We hit all the highlights, including the Louvre…
…the Musee d’Orsay, Angelina’s for hot chocolate, Sacré-Cœur, Montmartre, Versailles, and of course the Eiffel Tower.
It was an incredible week filled with amazing food, big laughs, and enough walking to satisfy the fitbit step goals of a small army. We actually walked enough that despite imbibing copious amounts of macarons we all lost weight.
- Note: For in-depth blog posts on Montmartre and Sacré-Cœur, you can always check out Expat Life 5 – June in Paris, a post written about a month we spent staying in a Montmartre apartment. You can also check out 4 Days in Paris for all kinds of other Paris-y goodness and heaps of photography from around the city.
If you’ve never been to Paris and are looking for one tip that will make all the difference for when you do go, consider this – for the love of all things good and holy – bring comfortable shoes! That’s it. Everything else pales in comparison when it comes to Paris travel tips.
A Seine River cruise was high on the list for the group, so towards the end of the week we were treated to a ride on the Seine to see the city at night. Touristy? Sure, but also well worth the time if you want to see some of the city’s highlights from a unique perspective.
A huge plus to the evening was my aunt Liesje – who was also visiting Paris at the same time with her adventurous friends – were also planning on taknig a cruise that night, so we managed to connect on the same boat! We had a colliding of worlds – all of Angela’s family meeting my aunt on a cruise in France. Small world!
One of the big highlights was the Moulin Rouge – we’d walked by many times and had always wondered what the show inside might be like. As a group we decided it would be fun, so we took in the 9pm show on a Friday night. One of Angela’s podcast guests from her Creative Pulse podcast was actually dancing in the show (episode #73), so we were extra fired up to cheer for her and the rest of the cast. We weren’t allowed cameras inside the venue, so the best we could do was a cell phone pic outside.
The show was phenomenal. Absolutely spectacular, and while it was expensive, it was a show that you won’t see anywhere else. It lived up to its reputation, from the wild wardrobes and sets to the music and stunts. The dancers were incredible.
After five brilliant days we took the train back to Montpellier with happy memories and more than a few souvenirs. I think Paris wowed Angela’s family, even if they didn’t quite reach our level of admiration (obsession?) for it.
We recuperated for a few days and then decided to take advantage of the warm weather and voyage down to the beach at Palavas-les-Flots. Palavas is close to Montpellier – only a twenty minute ride – and it’s a fun little seaside town that offers restaurants, shops, and miles of sand. We ate gelato, looked out at the Mediterranean and watched a bunch of shirtless weightlifters pretend like no one was watching them.
Overall, the month of visitors was a huge success. We had visitors in one form or another staying with us for more than five weeks. It was gratifying to see our family view southern France and Paris through fresh eyes. Sometimes it’s easy to become a bit jaded with cobblestone streets and really good baguettes, but when you see the wonder and interest that people new to the area show it, it’s a good reminder that we do indeed live in a very special place.
Most of all, it was just nice to see everyone. The expat experience is one of excitement but it can also be one of loneliness – leaving your friends and family behind in your home country is no easy task, and visiting with everyone nine months into our journey gave us a nice jolt of energy. We felt the love, and despite the miles between us, family will always be family.
Thanks for reading! We’ll look forward to sharing another Expat Life post with you next month – a bientôt!