Amy Hardy's Story: France / Montpellier

Amy Hardy : Montpelier, France

About the City

Montpellier, France is a beautiful city in the south of France, located in the region Langue d'Occ (as the romance language Occidental was formerly spoken here). This region produces the highest QUANTITY of wine (not quality haha). Montpellier is about a four hour train ride from Paris, and a major TGV line runs through Paris to Montpellier, so travel to the capital is quite easy (though it can be costly). The population of the city is about 250,000 with many many foreign students from all over the world.

The city center is called La Comedie. If you plan on going out with friends, this is usually the place to meet. There is a huge fountain at the center that serves as a common meeting area. It is full concrete and no cars may drive on it. The tramway passes through La Comedie every few minutes, but the city is so beautiful, and the weather is so nice that walking is actually a better experience! The outside of the city center is shops, restaurants and a three story mall. Just outside of the mall is my favorite place: Antigone. This is a huge Greek-inspired architectural center housing restaurants, shops and office buildings. I guess it kind of resembles the Greek Agora or Roman Forum. Inside there are 4 fountains with different statues spouting water. There is also a statue if Winged Victory at the end. This reaches le Lez—the BEST place in the city! Le Lez is a green river that runs alongside a bike/jogging path. On the banks of the Lez is an "M" made up of flowers. It is beautiful. If you don't want to go t the beach, hang out at the Lez.

The school is located about a 30 minute walk from the city center… okay, more like 45 minutes, but if you hop on the tram, you can get there in about 12 minutes. It is at the Montpellier III Campus called Paul Valery. The building is L'ionesco (after the absurdest playwright). It is a building for Foreign Students only who endeavor to learn French. Classes are fun. Level III is so fun. I had the best teacher in the school: Mme Gardies. She was sincerely interested in out many different ethnic backgrounds (we consisted of Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Columbian, German, Spanish, Syrian, etc students). My class always made foreign food to share with one another. We were a very tight knit group of friends. It was a very unique experience with my classmates.


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