Sud de France avec Les Deneuves

After finally getting into the proper station an hour later than I had told Chloé, she met me on her bike and we got to hers relatively quickly where I met her roommate, Lou, and dinner was waiting for us. I felt such relief to see a familiar face even though I had never met Chloé in person and a part of me was just happy to have a break to speak English again.

Dinner is served!

 

The older Deneuve sister

Chloé had warned me about the lack of things to do in Valence but I did a quick search online and a few suggestions of La Maison des Têtes and the Cathédrale St-Apollinaire popped up so I decided to see what they were about the next day. Upon walking into the center of the city, I found the tourist center so went in to see what other suggestions there might be for me to explore. I ended up getting out of there with a lot of little cards for discounts of places that I wasn't even sure were close by but I decided if I passed by those places, I'd go. But sticking to my plan, I went to find La Maison des Têtes first but along the way, I did pass by the Cathédrale St-Apollinaire so I walked around it and down to get a better view. Most of the time, I walked about enjoying the surroundings and not really knowing the significance of what I was looking at but that's alright. When I got to La Maison des Têtes, I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to see there but I walked through an archway to

 some statues and figured that was that. There was a shop next to the archway that looked like the information center so I walked in and everything was in French and the lady at the counter seemed engaged in a conversation with a customer so I just interpreted the placards along the wall as best I could before I decided to go on my way.

I just thought that this was a cool street sign  

Pink fountain for Breast Cancer Awareness! 

The fountain in the middle of town

The discount cards I picked up

Wall leading to the museum

Cute little church?

Cathédrale St-Apollinaire from afar

Random Arsenal

Followed this sign

La Maison des Têtes

View from the bottom

Some restaurant that serviced Napoleon?

After a bit more of walking, I made my way down the slope towards what I saw as the water on my map. I ended up reaching a major road and wasn't sure where there might have been an opening to actually get to the water so I walked along the road and then made my way back through the little streets of what I guess could be called the downtown area. I saw someone coming towards me holding a baguette so I continued to walk in the direction in which he came in hopes of getting my hands on some pain (bread in French). I didn't end up finding one where I wanted to get a baguette from so I just made my way back to Chloé's and figured I'd find one on the way. At this point, the tendonitis was slightly crippling so I decided to get some things to prepare lunch and chill out while I waited for Chloé to finish work.

Passed by this park so decided to check it out

The closest I could get to the mountain view

Passed by this random shop

Safety first

On my way back, I took a different path thinking I'd find a grocery store on the way but didn't. I did, however, find a nice little boulangerie so I got a baguette and a discounted bag of croissants which were semi-burnt but yummy nonetheless. As I was walking down the street, it happened in such a flash but this car full of girls hit a truck and I wasn't sure what to do but watch for a few minutes. The one thing that I happened to make note of was that one of the girls managed to hold onto her cigarette the whole time and I got a little worried because all of this liquid was coming out of the front of the car and she was holding the cigarette very haphazardly near the car. But after I saw that some people had starting making phone calls, I figured that I would be of no help so continued on my way.

Boulangerie

Got my pain!

Croissants

When I got back to Chloé's, all I wanted to do was ice my Achilles but I was also hungry so figured I'd head out again in a bit to find a store. The icing helped a bit so I sucked it up and went in search of groceries but it was just my luck that I got to the one grocery store fifteen minutes after it had closed for the afternoon so I hobbled back and put on Southpaw while I waited for it to reopen. Luckily Chloé had messaged me to check in and she told me that there was another grocery store that would be open in the other direction so off I went again. Content with my purchases of chicken, a courgette, and some carrots, I spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying my lunch with my feet elevated and on ice watching Southpaw.

Ice ice baby

I thought I could squeeze by but realized how small the gap was as I got closer...

Lunch!

I didn't get to finish watching the movie before it was time for me to go meet Chloé but it was good from what I got out of it. Since Chloé had ordered a BlaBlaCar and I had my Eurail pass, we parted ways and I figured since I had gotten onto the train to Valence without a reservation, I'd risk it for Montpellier as well. Passed! And I didn't have to wait for long before finding Chloé and we both went to find Mama Deneuve.

Piano available to be played. This guy was quite the musician.

Upon getting to their village of l'Herault in Péret (I hope I got that right), I got the grand tour of their amazing house and then got to relax with some wine and rugby with the Deneuve women before
 having an amazing home-cooked meal.

Such a cute pic of the Deneuve sisters!

Some aperitifs

Life is good

Pie!

The next day, we decided to go into Montpellier so that I could check out where the Deneuve sisters
 spent their college years. Once we got there, we got onto a tram that took us right to the center of the city and I got the impression that it is atypical for all of the stores to have their items outside because both Chloé and Mom kept remarking how it must be a special event or something going on.

What I woke up to

Trying to figure out what each place is called

The rugby stadium

Montpellier rugby team

Waiting for the tram

As we walked around the little alleyways and things, Chloé pointed out the bike parts that are adhered to the walls throughout the city as some sort of art piece and it was quite charming. As we continued to walk around, there were so many different little shops to walk through and we ended up in a nice little area for lunch where I got the plat du jour of veal and potatoes - scrumdiddlyumptious. And after lunch, we continued with our leisurely walk around town and I ended up getting these cute earrings that look like the wings of Hermes's (the Greek messenger God) shoes. We went around to see some really cool churches and buildings and everything just looked so quaint.

Upon getting into town

Street with all different stores selling their items

Bike in the wall

Plat du jour

Cathedral

Cute little alleyway

Items in one of the little shops

Messing around

Found this at a booth

A very beautiful facade that Mom loves

Eglise

There was one church that we passed by that had an art exhibit inside from a New York artist I believe. Some pretty cool paintings inside and it was free so we decided to walk around there for a bit. Then, we walked past an arch (not de Triomphe) to get a nice view of the border of the town. We had some good conversation about how the French government takes care of people who are unemployed and it's quite ridiculous that people can take advantage of the system just as much as Americans can.

Art exhibit

Walking to the park

Right when we were nearing the end of our visit, we met up with Mathilde, Chloé's friend, and got some beautifully delicious gelato at Amorino Gelato. They let you pick two flavors and they shape it into a flower for you right in the cone! So pretty and yummy! In no time, it had disappeared into my tummy and we bid farewell to Mathilde so that we could catch the tram to get back to the car. Back at the Deneuve house, we got to Skype with Céline and Token for a good little bit before we settled in for yet another delectable dinner and the England vs. Uruguay match.

A marching band of sorts

Beautiful church

This used to be a school of medicine I believe

Nom

The streets got rowdier as we left

On our way back to Peret

Cute little roads

Aperitifs

The next day, Mom had wanted to go on a hike but Chloé's knee was a bit wonky and my Achilles still weren't that great so we opted for a nice little bike ride instead. After resurrecting Céline's old bike and making sure everyone's tires were pumped, we headed on our way. I had been taught how to use bike gears once but never really used them correctly so this was going to be a test and I think I survived pretty well. I was always the one in the back but I'm glad I was able to somewhat keep up. Just like when I go on long hikes, even though the journey was tiring, the view made it totally worth it.

I made my bed!

Morning views

Walking through their little village in the morning

Cleaning up the old bike

I'm ready to go!

Mr. Preying Mantis on the road.

Bike views

Taking a break

They're so far ahead of me!

I'll catch up eventually

Vineyard

More vineyards up ahead

As we biked on the more flat ground, Mom would point out different areas and tell me a little bit about the history of Languedoc (the whole area that includes Péret). Along the way, we saw acres and acres of vineyards and Mom was able to tell me a thing or two about winemaking as she was in the business for quite a long time. After about a two hour bike ride and having biked through Cabrièères and Neffiès and Fontès,we made it back up the slope to the Deneuve house and were quite ready for our lunch.

I made it!

Got bike grease all over my leg though...

After a bit of lounging around, it was time to drive Chloé back to Montpellier to get her BlaBlaCar back to Valence and we tried to stream the Ireland vs. France game on our way there and were fairly successful. Upon getting back, we finished watching the rest of the game and then we had dinner with sausage and aligot mashed potatoes which is this cheesy and rich version of mashed potatoes and it was best served very hot. And we finished off the night with another rugby match.

*sigh of relaxation*

The next day, Mom had a meeting in Montpellier in the afternoon so it was perfect timing for me to grab a train to Barcelona. Since we had some time before Mom's meeting, we went to Ikea to grab some lunch and we had a delicious shrimp salad type dish accompanied by the typical mini cheese platter. After lunch, Mom had enough time to show me where Decathlon (an amazing sports store that sells things for every type of sport at reasonable prices that didn't know about until that weekend) was and then it was time to say goodbye.

French Ikea!

With a little more than an hour until I needed to take the tram to the train station, I decided to check out Decathlon. I had prepared myself to walk around lugging my two bags but a security person stopped me and said something about my bags in French so I figured there was a place to put them. However, he walked away before I could clarify so I decided to just suck it up and ask one of the clerks in English what I could do with my bags and she showed me to the free lockers. How considerate!
With just my smaller bag, I walked around marveling at all the cool sports equipment I can't have. Céline had requested that I get some rugby socks for her and Token so I looked for the Rugby section but even in France, there didn't seem to be much, as the only rugby socks that I could find were the typical solid black and red ones (with what Céline had told me, I was expecting a wider selection). I even formed the question of "Where are the Rugby socks?" In French in my head and repeated it several times before asking someone and she just directed me back to where I saw the socks the first time. I was told that there was a Decathlon in Barcelona as well so I decided I'd try my luck there and just wandered the store a bit more perusing all the other cool sports and athletic gear and equipment.
Checking the time, I still needed to get some presents for my hosts in Spain so I headed to the grocery store right in the same plaza (Centre commercial Odysseum) to look for some wine and cheese. Again, the same deal happened with having to check my bag at a counter but I'm glad they have these services for free. When I got to the cheese section, there were rows upon rows of options that I had to circle around the area twice before finally deciding upon a little tray of several different types, two made with goat's milk, one with sheep and the other with cow. The next difficulty was finding a wine with which to pair it. Above each section of h'ordeurve, there were different wines so I figured those were suggested pairings and grabbed the wine that was the closest to the cheese tray I had picked.

Cheese on cheese on cheese

So many options of pairings

With my purchases safely tucked away in my bags, I went to go find the tram to the train station. At first, I had passed the ticket machine so I sorted out my French to ask someone where I could find it. I was getting a little bit more confident with French and here I was going off to Spain next. It's alright though because I know I'll be returning with better French in a few years. A bientôt!
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French movie on the train I tried to learn from

Off to Barcelona!

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