Bart and Nancy are scheduled to arrive at the Montpellier train station at about 5:30pm. Before we pick them up, we and the Grunows will do a bit of sight-seeing in Montpellier. Even though it’s raining we say we’re not made of sugar and take off for the old cité, an incredibly beautiful ancient town.
We have been to Montpellier MANY times and each time we encounter driving and parking problems. The train station is a particular problem–we always find an obstacle to actually arriving at the station. This time is no different! But, as we take the turn that we know is not correct, we find that there is a new parking area just below the area we would like to explore. The bottom level has many parking spaces (as shown by the electronic board) so we head for the basement. We arrive unfortunately sans (without) composure; I have a slight nervous breakdown as we’re spiraling down to the depths of the parking structure as Howard is fooling around with the GPS and it vocalizes at full volume. But that is quickly forgotten by Howard and me (but maybe not by the Grunows).
We have arrived at the perfect place for sight-seeing but maybe not for train arrival but we do not fret about that. The weather is rather drizzly and cold but after a quick coffee we take off to find a place for lunch. Surprisingly the cité is very crowded.
We eventually find our way back to Place Comedie, the main focal point of the 18th century cité, which surrounds the Fountain of Three Graces. We have a lunch of gizzard and smoked duck breast salad for Howard and paninis for the rest of us.
We split up to explore the cité and agree to meet just before the train arrives. It’s a fairly quick walk to the train station and after a bit of back-and-forth discussion and a language-challenged discussion with a train employee we realize that the train from Paris will be 90 minutes late. We decide to take the Grunows back home to relieve Marie and start dinner. Later we discover what a great decision we made!
The round trip is much longer than we expect and the Franks wait close to 45 minutes for us to arrive. (We are in connection by phone so they know we are on the way.) Again the Montpellier train station confounds us so we park in the same lot we parked in earlier in the day. We find our friends–hurray! But we do have a bit of a walk to the car park.
When we arrive at home the Grunows have gone way above and beyond the call of duty! We are greeted with sparkling rosé wine and munchies. They have put together an incredible meal of sa usage; potatoes; huge, delicious grilled asparagus and maybe more than I can remember. The important remembrance is that we arrive to a warm welcome with great food and wine and warm friendship.
After a night of great conviviality we go to bed about midnight dreaming of the days to come.