Sabbatical 8/28 - More Drinking in Montpellier
I slept in after a strenuous night of drinking. Fortunately, I didn't have any particular heavy plans for the day. After a a leisurely breakfast I wandered the city some more.
Montpellier is old enough that it once had city walls. A few remnants remained, so I went and checked out the extant towers. I then walked down to the river, which was a substantial distance and took me out of the old quarter and into a horrible faux plaza thing attached to a mall. The river was kind of pretty though, and the plaza did have an interesting fountain in it.
After this long walk I was overheating, so I slipped into the Pavillon Populaire, which is a rather substantial museum dedicated to photography. At the time I was they had an exhibit about Jakob Tuggener, specifically based on a pioneering photography book he had published in 1943.
I spent most of the rest of the afternoon in the botanical garden, which is the oldest such institution in France. It was originally built to support the medical school, which has been around since long before they had effective medicine. Regrettably, some parts of the garden were closed off but there were still plenty of pretty flowers to see.
I returned to my hotel for a siesta. When I woke I finished a sci-fi novel called The Fourth World by Dennis Danvers, which despite being published in 2000 seems to have anticipated a lot of the subsequent developments in the internet. I really enjoyed it and recommend it.
From here it was time once again to meet up with bart_calendar. After a few drinks at his favorite afternoon bistro, we headed to Papa Doble, which was once acclaimed as one of the top 25 bars in the entire world. We each enjoyed a very good (and alas, expensive) cocktail. Then we went to the Beehive again for food and (a lot) more beer. It was a most enjoyable evening.
Photos fifteen through thirty-six in this set are from August 28.
Montpellier is old enough that it once had city walls. A few remnants remained, so I went and checked out the extant towers. I then walked down to the river, which was a substantial distance and took me out of the old quarter and into a horrible faux plaza thing attached to a mall. The river was kind of pretty though, and the plaza did have an interesting fountain in it.
After this long walk I was overheating, so I slipped into the Pavillon Populaire, which is a rather substantial museum dedicated to photography. At the time I was they had an exhibit about Jakob Tuggener, specifically based on a pioneering photography book he had published in 1943.
I spent most of the rest of the afternoon in the botanical garden, which is the oldest such institution in France. It was originally built to support the medical school, which has been around since long before they had effective medicine. Regrettably, some parts of the garden were closed off but there were still plenty of pretty flowers to see.
I returned to my hotel for a siesta. When I woke I finished a sci-fi novel called The Fourth World by Dennis Danvers, which despite being published in 2000 seems to have anticipated a lot of the subsequent developments in the internet. I really enjoyed it and recommend it.
From here it was time once again to meet up with bart_calendar. After a few drinks at his favorite afternoon bistro, we headed to Papa Doble, which was once acclaimed as one of the top 25 bars in the entire world. We each enjoyed a very good (and alas, expensive) cocktail. Then we went to the Beehive again for food and (a lot) more beer. It was a most enjoyable evening.
Photos fifteen through thirty-six in this set are from August 28.