Archive for Montepellier

Tour de France – Deuxième Étape

Posted in Biographical with tags , on November 26, 2023 by telescoper

So here I am, then, in my room in Montpellier, about to have breakfast and then to depart for the train to Paris. Hopefully, I’ll get to my hotel there in time for the three consecutive hours of Zoom calls I have scheduled for this evening. I’ll be spending tomorrow at the Institut de Physique Théorique in Saclay, which will require a combination of trains and buses, but for today I just have to get the TGV from Montpellier Saint-Roch to Paris Gare De Lyon and an RER train from there to my hotel. What could possibly go wrong?

Thank you to everyone in Montpellier for their hospitality during this short visit. Au revoir!

Update: On my way on time. Momentary panic as I tried to embark because the OUIGO app refused to display my ticket so I couldn’t find out which seat I was supposed to sit in, but it worked eventually. This train isn’t as fancy as the one I got from Barcelona and is rather full but nevertheless comfortable enough.

Update to the Update: arrived in a very grey and misty Paris on schedule and managed to find my way to the hotel and even managed the whole check-in experience in French! Now I have three hours of telecons to complete before thinking about dinner…

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Random Shots of Montpellier

Posted in Biographical, History with tags , , , , on November 25, 2023 by telescoper

Having a few hours to spare this morning, I took a walk around Montpellier in the sunshine. I can tell you that the layout of the old part of the city, which hasn’t changed since mediaeval times, is a labyrinth in which it is very easy to get lost but if you’re not going anywhere in particular it’s fun wandering around. At night it’s very atmospheric too. Anyway, here are some random pics I took on the way. As you can see, the weather was lovely and you always get interesting shadows from the winter sun…

While I am on the blog, I thought I would mention one of Montpellier’s famous historical connections, Michel de Nostredame (1503-1566), more usually known as Nostradamus, who studied medicine at the University here for a while before he was expelled. I searched the Prophecies of Nostradamus which you can find online, and found no reference to my visit to Montpellier. Incidentally, the University of Montpellier was founded in 1220 so is one of the oldest universities in the world. La Tour de la Babotte was part of the fortifications of the old city and was later used for a time as an astronomical observatory.

P.S. the oldest remains in Montpellier are medieval. The Romans never settled here; the main settlement in the area was Maguelone, on the coast. The administrative centre of the region was moved to Montpellier, which is 10km inland, to avoid raids from pirates.

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