{"id":1502,"date":"2017-06-25T12:58:32","date_gmt":"2017-06-25T19:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jjkpryde.com\/blog\/day-54-exploring-montpellier\/"},"modified":"2017-06-26T01:54:37","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T08:54:37","slug":"day-54-exploring-montpellier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jjkpryde.com\/blog\/day-54-exploring-montpellier\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 54 – Exploring Montpellier\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>

Porte du Peyrou, Montpellier<\/p><\/div>
\nThe term “exploring” implies open-mind, totally objective, information gathering.  That is not what really is going on here.  <\/p>\n

Whenever I have a little time in a new town or village, even when I was just crashing at the next available alburgue after a long day on the Camino, I would take a half hour to traverse the neighborhood in search for something, some place that reflects the soul of that location.  It might be a statue of a town forefather, an academic institution, a historic grain warehouse or just a bridge over a narrow spot in the river.  It may not be the most popular tourist attraction but it is held in reverence by the local community. <\/p>\n

Montpellier has several candidates for this role because there are several memorials to the violence that has racked France over the centuries.<\/p>\n

When I approached the 17th century Porte du Peyrou (Arche de Triumph) shown above and the associated Promenade and Bassin du Peyrou…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\"\"<\/a>

Bassin de Peyrou, Montpellier<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Followed by the 18th century Saint Clement Aquaduct…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

st Clement Aquaducts, Montpellier<\/p><\/div>
\n…I knew I had discovered the foundation of Montpellier.  These structures, though weathered in places and serving host to a community of homeless, have stood over centuries of Montpellier history.  <\/p>\n

  
\n  <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Camino de Santiago marker in Montpellier<\/p><\/div>
\nThe standards for marking the pilgrims path to Santiago de Compostela are largely left to local jurisdictions and implemented by volunteers.   Montpellier has embedded these brass markers in the streets.  I followed them for a ways through town.   <\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Two spotted rays at Planet Ocean World, Montpellier<\/p><\/div>
\nHaving saturated my interest in renaissance and modern art in previous cities, I passed on the rich collections of Montpellier and tried the “Planet Ocean World” Aquarium instead.  
\nBeing just 11km from the Mediterranean I expected a pretty dramatic presentation of exotic sea life.  I guess I’ve been spoiled living near two of the hotbeds of aquatic research,  Woods Hole Marine Biological Research Center in Massachusetts and The Seattle Aquarium in Washington state.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe aquarium in Montpellier was centered around one large tank with multiple viewing points of the same few fish swimming lackadaisically.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The remainder of the presentations were mostly mock ups, video simulations and colored pictures.  There were no outside exhibitions at all. <\/p>\n

To get there I did learn how to navigate the Montpellier tram system which was easy and inexpensive.  <\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

Both Toulouse and Montpellier sport a functioning bike sharing system.  I did not try it out because it seemed like an even more efficient method of getting totally lost in a city that eschews street signs and where the buildings all look pretty much alike. But if I were here longer, I’d definitely choose this over driving a car. 
\nToday’s eclectic picture is this sign for a bar near my studio apartment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Buen Camino,
\n– jgp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The term “exploring” implies open-mind, totally objective, information gathering.  That is not what really is going on here.   Whenever I have a little time in a new town or village, even when I was just...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-camino"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p32pSF-oe","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjkpryde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjkpryde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjkpryde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjkpryde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjkpryde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1502"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjkpryde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1503,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjkpryde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502\/revisions\/1503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjkpryde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjkpryde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjkpryde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}