Montpellier

France. I'm still not sure if I hate this country or what. We arrived in Marseille on Friday only to find the dirtiest, smelliest, most hectic place we have been. Marseille is the second biggest city in France and sits on the mediterranian. It is a mostly car oriented city so it made walking around a serious bitch. We couldn't find anything to do; it seemed that at six the whole city would close. The only open bar we found grilled us at the door and proceeded to charge us €5 for a Hoegarden (in Belgium we were paying €1.50). After two days we bounced and headed for Montpellier. This is by far the best city I have ever been to in France (I'm not a fan of Paris either). Monpellier is a beutiful mediteranian town with very nice people and plenty to do (i.e. they have bars that stay open past 8). The city is old and mostly pedestrian. The weather is wonderful, sunny and 50 degrees. It's not exactly tropical but it beats Minnesota any day. Though it feels wierd wearing a winter jacket around palm trees. France is a bit more expensive than Belgium and Holland but the wine is dirt cheap, about €2 for a bottle. The language barrier is pretty steep out here, I suck at French, every time I try to say anything it comes out as Spanish, ugh.

Last night we were walking around and found a bar that was having a punk show that night. We had not heard of the bands but it was free so we decided to check it out. The show turned out to be a french version of higher grounds circa '97; highschool kids watching their friends try to play in a band. It was interesting to say the least. It was painful watching the last band attemt to cover "the longest line" but overall the night was really fun. The bartender was American and gave us the lowdown on Montpellier. He has been here over a year and has decided not to learn any French. He told us to meet up with this guy from Edina (of all places) and he would show us around.

I'm still typing on these wacky keyboards, it took about 40 minutes to type this post. Paz, D