montpellier

"Go to the South," they said. "Get some sun," they said, "Get a tan."

So we did. We hopped on our first night train to Montpellier, to visit my friend Jon. We were heading for a sort-of family Easter, so I should have known: I don't know the last time I've experienced a sunny, blue-skies Easter weekend. I'm often wearing rain-safe shoes & a large coat.

Things started off a bit, well, off. Our "couchette" (sleeper car) had six beds to a room, and after a few hours of us all sleeping on top of the little sleeping bags they gave us, the room was starting to stink. It kept on stinking well into the morning, when we were stopped in Avignon for several hours. SNCF was kind enough to offer us a free box of breakfast. Joe & I hopped on the breakfast train a bit late, and when we went searching for them they were all gone.

Our "couchette" mates were kind enough to share, and we turned our "beds" into benches so that we could stay up for the rest of the ride. We were two hours late, but we made it. Jon met us at the train station, umbrellas in hand, and our adventure began.

It wasn't quite the sunny escape we expected, but luckily Nancy has gotten us well used to cloudy days & cool weather. Even more luckily, a girl left an umbrella at a bar (well before we got there). We were able to snag that & stay dry for the weekend–a true victory after the hail storm we encountered on our walk back to the train station on Monday.

So much for getting a tan.

Jon was who I first traveled to France with in 2008. (You can read about THOSE adventures, of which there were more than a few, here.) We spent our last two days of travel in Montpellier, and I'm glad to say that this experience was much more positive than the first one. I will say that I still prefer my Nancy, but I loved the more lived-in "city" feel of Montpellier, & with a seasoned host like Jon it was great to see new things we'd missed last time.

We popped around town all weekend, between meeting friends, dodging rain clouds & cooking meals. I loved meeting Jon's friends & I loved feeling like we had gone to some sort of home for Easter weekend. We sat around a candle-lit table eating roasted chicken (the meat I've mastered this year) & salad with RANCH DRESSING. How relaxing & comforting!

Though I'd love to go on about the beauty of what we saw, it'd be easier for you to click on the pictures from our adventure on Flickr. My narration would get boring, but the architecture of the south of France does not.

What struck me most was how much I had to face what I've been dreading: The idea that this adventure, like the one Jon & I shared last time, will shortly come to an end. This is one of Jon's last weekends with his friends before heading back to the States, & much of the conversation could be summarized like this: What the HELL happened? Where did the time go? Why are we leaving? What will happen next?

These are statements that are familiar to all of you at this point in our blogging relationship. There was a lot of goodbye-saying in all sorts of ways this weekend, & I felt like I was cheating, like I was getting away with something really special. We weren't on our last vacation. We were on a weekend get-away at the start of our vacation. Two weeks of true "vacance" & two months of this honeymoon adventure. How lucky are we?

I'll post more about our time in Montpellier this week, but for now I have a gin & tonic to finish, a coffee date in a bit & a sink full of dishes to wash. Don't forget to find Joe's head in the new photo challenge. Enjoy your week. I know we will. Vacation, here we come! Goodbye, productivity!

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