Studying Abroad in Montpellier: April 2007

Wandering

Lindsay and I took a little side trip to the Château d’Eau, why not?

Not one person has obeyed this sign, ever.

I’m a little lost as to what this does.

Montpellier is looking great!

We were serenaded by a man strumming a guitar.

I had never noticed this before.

My apartment is right down the street from this church. We stared at the trees for awhile, since they all look the same, big and knobby. I wonder if the Park Authority clips them back, and if so, why?

The University of Medicine was in good form. This is one of my favorite buildings, I think.

Gargoyle for Mom.

Woo, sundial.

Distraction

Notice my computer in the background and what I was resorting to in order to stop working.

I’ve had Mika’s Relax (Take it Easy) on constant repeat in my head all week, which is ironic because I was neither able to relax nor take it easy at any point. Strangely, as soon as I was able to stop stressing this weekend I can’t stop hearing The Authority Box by Robin Hitchcock and the Venus 3.

Sam and I spent some time out in that strange little park at Paul-Valéry the other day. Little fishes in the fountain.

This looks a lot better than it did when I took it.

Some tubey growth on the side.

I can’t tell whether this pinecone was placed up in the tree on purpose or if there was just some divine will that it should fall suchly.

There are a million snail shells in between the cracks of the bank.

Close up of the shell.

Making sure I’m included in one of the pictures. Hello, hand.

This was the most skittish frog in the world. I wasn’t less than five feet away at this point and the second after I took the picture he disappeared.

Pirate of the Comedie

Cute! These ducks were in the Lez Canal that I have to cross to get to the American Library. I kept watching them, thinking about how they were going to deal with the waterfall, whether they’d just try to sail over it or not.

Guess not.

And back into the water they go. I like how they’re in V formation, just like the Mighty Ducks. Quack, quack, quack.

This fun character is a magician that hangs out at the Comedie and always garners a large crowd. The first thing I thought when I saw him was “wow, he looks like Captain Jack Sparrow”. Turns out, he had a pirate flag on his magical bag of tricks so I think the resemblance was deliberate.

Hee, the itinerant musician’s amp is called The Tramp.

No matter how durable or developed I was, I don’t know how much I would like being called Generation Double D.

Gah! I love these water spouts.

My knee is beginning to resemble a bruisey banana.

Turtle, why not? It was just meandering down the road in front of the office without rhyme or reason and eventually a band of alley children came running after it in a crowd of shrieks and flailing arms and thwarted his journey to freedom

This looks like a job for Uncle Tom! The office has been overrun with ants lately and the program directors don’t really seem all that concerned about it.

Nasty.

Aqueduct Fun

Someone had the guts to climb out on the aqueduct and hang this banner which reads “No being (wrinkle) is not ….(wrinkle wrinkle wrinkle).” It’s a good thing they went to all that work making the letters legible.

The Château d’Eau was looking good in the sunset.

We had never noticed quite such an abundance of fish before.

Later that evening, I kept hearing these plaintive mews coming from outside and my first thought was, “oh! Culled alley cat has come back!” Not true. This was just an exceptionally loud cat who wanted let in across the way. I did like how the moon got in the picture was well.

I managed to get the cat mid-meow. It wasn’t too hard.

Speaking of culled, I spotted yet another lost pet sign at the tram stop. This reads, “LOST: I lost Domi on April 20^th. Please contact me at 06-24-74-63-08”. It’s become an epidemic.

Crikey! “Lost, Tina 7 months, Jack Russell, Thursday April 5^th 2007”.

I was just playing around but I ended up really liking this picture.

You can see, I can’t stop wearing those slippers.

Walking Tour

Why wouldn’t you name a restaurant The Masked Cucumber?

Still masked, and still dancing. Might I point out the fact that this joyous cucumber (which more resembles a zucchini) is holding up the same knife and fork that will be used later on to eat him? Why is he wearing a napkin? Does he not know that he’s going to end up as a side dish? It’s like the walrus and the oysters.

I can see the restaurant owner saying to him, “hey Cucumber, I’m having myself a little costume dinner party next Tuesday, so make sure you’re here at 7 sharp and make sure to bring your dancing shoes and that ill-fitting girdle!” Cucumber bounces into the restaurant on Tuesday with a ‘hey guys!!’, ready to have a good time with some cool folks, and realizes that no one else is wearing a costume. They do have forks and knives, though. And they look hungry.

The Blue Orange is a pretty sweet name too, with no tragic associations with humanized fruit.

Trippy.

Ahh, Fischer beer, encouraging child alcoholism since 1821.

This is why I like France. If there’s any reason to put well-sculpted buttocks into the public arena, well by Jove it will be done. The ad is for hemorrhoids, for crying out loud. Gross.