Montpellier--After a Hard Night

My favorite Australians, Kirsty from You Had Me at Bonjour and her family came to our neck of the woods this past long weekend. We decided to meet them in Montpellier for lunch; a time to see the city and have some fun.

Unfortunately, Montpellier didn't put on her pretty dress for them.

In fact, she looked kinda scary, like she'd pulled an all-nighter and hadn't yet recovered, mascara smudged, stockings torn. And I hate that because usually it's a lovely city with clean pedestrian areas, the big fun playground, great light for photographs and happy people-watching on the Place de la Comédie.

{Place de la Comédie}

The wacky Dr Seuss park had broken rosé bottles under the slides (rosé is what the French 'gangs' drink I guess) and there was a contingent of camping dread-locked hippies with two dogs a piece on the stage along the Esplanade. Whiffy!

We decided to have an early lunch of crépes on the Place de la Comédie and got a big, long table for all ten of us. We ate our crépes of all varieties--sucre, fromage, créme de marrons--and enjoyed a moment of chatting and laughter causing an orchestra of Australian and American accents with some French thrown in.

The kids were delighted to be together and when they'd finished their crépes we let the big kids go out into the plaza and have a run around. And that's when one of the kids got knocked down by a scooter illegally zipping through. You should know straight away that it was all okay in the end and he wasn't badly hurt (amazing). But it was terrifying; causing us all to tremble and feel more than a bit sick to our stomachs.
Another blow for Ms Montpellier. Her dress was torn and she stumbled as she did the walk of shame.

After the Baddie with no scooter license was sent away with his 'borrowed' scooter on a police escorted tow truck, we tried to collect ourselves and get on with the afternoon.

We walked across the pedestrian part of town, through the shopping center and into Antigone with the fabulous fountain towards the river Lez. There was an extreme sports rally on and we thought the boys would like to see guys on wakeboards jumping and doing tricks on the river. It was okay but even the boys thought it was kinda lame. Boring, to be exact. So we headed back toward the fountain.

{Fabulous Fountain}

I swear, that fountain is the best thing that's ever happened to my kids and apparently the Aussie kids too. It is pretty cool--with its sequence of sprays ranging from full on water-to-the-sky-blast to cheeky, arched dolphin sprays.
And no child can resist tempting it, running through, standing a bit too near, jumping on the tiny bursts before they turn into a geyser. All six of them got gradually more soaked until their clothes were wringing wet and their giggles and shouts enticed others to join in.

That fountain was one of the first things we loved about Montpellier when we came for a visit and now that we live here it continues to deliver. Not like how sometimes when you vacation somewhere and think it's the best thing ever and then you come back time and again and it loses its luster. Not this fountain, it still sparkles.

{big kids at the fountain that first time}

And it saved the day for me. And for the kids too. And I hope for Kirsty and her Mister.