Escape from Planet Montpellier!

[SaligoBay]

I've found it, the place you all talk about!   You know, where food is cheap and tasty, people in shops are friendly and helpful and don't just bark at you, markets are cute and manageable, strangers talk to you and tell you how good it is that you try to speak their language....... it's only bloomin Germany, innit!! 

No, I don't want to go and live there, but as a visitor all the above were true.   Very pleasant surprise indeed.   And no dog-poo on the streets, no need to be on permanent Poo Patrol!!! 

And isn't coffee cheap in other parts of France!   One morning for breakfast we were sitting outside a lovely café, locals chatting as they passed, windows full of patisserie, all that stuff.  We had 2 grands crèmes, a chocolat chaud, and 3 pains au chocolat.   I nearly fell off my chair when the bill was 8 euros!    Even grotty places round here will charge you 2.50 euros for a grand crème alone.

Back in the south now.  Home.  Had our first being-barked-at experience already, on phone call to garage to see if we can get new name-badge things for the car (they all got nicked on our overnight stop south of Lyon, from bonnet, boot, wheel-caps).   

Oh yes, and it now costs 9 euros to get into the cinema!

That sound you hear, it's me tightening my belt......

[letrangere]

SB, But did you come across anywhere else on your travels up through France that you would prefer to live (think climate) and, more importantly, where you could both get a job (think survival)?  I'm not 100% sure what this expression means but I'm tempted to say, "it's horses for courses".  You can't have everything, ie live in a part of the country that half the world hankers after, enjoy the best weather in France and pay rock bottom prices. 

Which has started me thinking, where is the cheapest place in France to live?  Rural Auvergne perhaps?  Any ideas?  M

[SaligoBay]

It wasn't a complaint, M, it was an eye-opener!!   Never really holidayed in Europe before, but needs must. 

The France that other people talk about and the France that I see around me just weren't matching up, but now I understand a bit more.    Parts of it do look extremely idyllic from the outside (as do parts of Germany, and probably any other country too), and I can imagine that the apparent cheapness could attract people.

I thought vines were meant to be messy and straggly, but no!  Oop north they're all well-tended and neatly in rows!    And I thought it was normal that French house exteriors were peeling grey, but no, some people paint the outside of their houses in attractive colours!!

It's just different.  Have to say though, in spite of what you say, I don't see many people on here hankering to come and live in the Montpellier Agglomération! 

    

 

 

 

 

[Mistral]

You can't have everything, ie live in a part of the country that half the world hankers after, enjoy the best weather in France and pay rock bottom prices. 

I agree with the point you're making, but what I've never understood, is why half the world would hanker after living here (of course I don't live in montpellier, I'm a couple of hours away) and maybe I'm strange but one of the reasons I'm looking to move is to get away from the weather. It's far too hot for me in the summer and too windy the rest of the time.

 

[andyh4]

[quote]I've found it, the place you all talk about! You know, where food is cheap and tasty, people in shops are friendly and helpful and don't just bark at you, markets are cute and manageable, strangers ...[/quote]

Which bit of Germany was that??

 

Customer Service in Germany in our experience is just a few years behind that of Paris!!

 

An example: A friend was in the supermarket and wanted to buy a cabbage.  Just as in France they are laid out, you pick one, weigh it, get your sticker with the price and on you go.  Problem is there are 6 different sort of cabbage on the shelves with different prices and different  buttons to push and no indication to the uninitiated which one is which.

 

Assistant passes by and friend asks here in German, "excuse me, but which sort of cabbage is this?"

"This is not my department"

"No I just want to know which sort it is"

"THIS IS NOT MY DEPARTMENT" and walks off.

[Christine Animal]

Depends whether you prefer sauerkraut - or sour grapes !    

[Ron Avery]

[quote]Which bit of Germany was that?? Customer Service in Germany in our experience is just a few years behind that of Paris!! An example: A friend was in the supermarket and wanted to buy a cabbage...[/quote]

Oh come on Andy,  hardly an earth shattering example of bad customer service  breaking out across Germany

From which you then make the gross assumption that "Customer Service in Germany in our experience is just a few years behind that of Paris!!"

How dare they offer 6 sorts of cabbage!!! That is NOT good customer service!!  Just offer the one to avoid confusion, That IS good Customer service

If your friend did not know what cabbage she wanted,  what did she want culinary advice?  From a shop assistant???  Perhaps if the assistant had said " I would use the savoy, it cooks up really well, nice crisp texture if not boiled  and can be kept in the fridge for a bit of bubble and squeak after  .......    Oh and by the way I only stack the shelves in the petfood section"   would that have been good customer service or fortnum and masons

[Alexis]

I have never fancied living in the South.  I always imagined that the heat would kill me.

After seeing it on this year's Tour, I wouldn't consider it.

Flat, boring, crowded, expensive, and you are libel to return home to find a pile of ashes instead of a house.....

I have been scouting around Finistére recently and find Morbihan much more to my taste countyside wise.

Always something!  Of course, Finistére is cheaper and I quite fancy moving to be nearer the sea.  It is also a bit remote though.

[andyh4]

[quote]Oh come on Andy, hardly an earth shattering example of bad customer service breaking out across Germany From which you then make the gross assumption that "Customer Service in Germany in our exp...[/quote]

Ron,

I have been here 10 years and do not have enough time (and the ISP probably does not have enough storage) to regail all of the more pleasing aspects of German Customer Service.

 

EDIT  Here = Germany not France unfortunately

[SaligoBay]

Which bit of Germany was that??

Yes, well, it was a surprise to me too!!    Have to admit that I didn't spend a lot of time shopping for cabbage though, and I have no desire to live there.   My interest in Germanic lands is linguistic and literary, and I can do that from anywhere. 

I'm not kidding, it was nice to spend a few days just going out and about without anyone being grumpy at me!!    Maybe it's just a speciality of the Montp Agglo?  We went to Paris in December, and I was kind of dreading the much-famed Parisian rudeness, but I didn't see a lot of difference between it and Montpellier in that regard.

I mean, waiters/waitresses (French and German) who manage to be pleasant and sometimes even smile, that was nice too!!   All in all it was a positive experience, that's all I'm saying!!

Alexis, have you been reading the Rough Guide to France about this area, by any chance? 

 

[opas]

You must have an in-built radar ( as has Mr O) to escape from Montpelliershire!  I got so lost last week , looking for , what must be THE biggest hospital area. Diversion, Diversions and more Diversions....the best one was when a three lane road was diverted down what I can only describe as a back alley.

I loved the area, lots to do and see...if you are not stuck in a hospital room for 3 days that is!

Not too impressed with Gignac(sorry any Gignacians) but it stinks of raw sewage in the centre and the staff at Intermarche must be recruited specialy from grumpsareus.

Anyway we too are back home , house is still standing, as there were a few fires raging nearby earlier in the week(watched on news whilst trying to entertain a bored , bedridden 7 year old)

Mrs O

[letrangere]

"Customer Service in Germany in our experience is just a few years behind that of Paris!!"

Impossible!  And I speak as one who reckons Paris is still the best city on earth to live in.  M

[Mistral]

We went to Paris in December, and I was kind of dreading the much-famed Parisian rudeness, but I didn't see a lot of difference between it and Montpellier in that regard.

Our summer holiday trip generally takes us from Provence to the german border, on to paris and then normandy and last brittany before leaving for the UK. My husband reckons that people will smile at him as soon as we've left provence and we can always tell when we're getting close to paris as they stop smiling, then as soon as we get to normany out come the smiles again. (and this is travelling in a car with 13 on it- not popular)

[Teamedup]

Really, they smile in Normandy? Now I do know that they smile in La Belle Bretagne!

[Miki]

They sure do TU, especially when the tourists are in town

No they really are a hardy bunch, with the Breton history and the way they have come through it all and so many still have that "smiley ambiance", says a lot for the Bretons in my view.

[Teamedup]

I am quite biased, Brittany is quite my favourite part of France and my favourite people.....

[Miki]

Strange thing, our first family holiday was in Brittany in the early 70's but we didn't go around our part of Brittany again until 1999.

We have holidayed and toured around much of France and lived of course, in a few places here but somehow, never went back to Brittany, thinking we had seen it, due to holidaying in one certain area and thinking THAT was Brittany full stop !

How wrong we were to think that was Brittany, we have now seen a lot more of Brittany, as diverse a place as you could ever see, (except the mountains !) surely the best coastal line in France, if not, there can not not be too many coastal places better than here ! We met a lot of Bretons who have become good friends (and some we avoid !) but all in all, it ain't half a nice place BUT as ever, it is probably not all things to all men I suppose and I still love the other places we have lived in and visited !

"Ni français ni Breton, Malouin je suis"........

[Deby]

My interest in Germanic lands is linguistic and literary, and I can do that from anywhere.

Oh SB!  Do you really wish to learn a language that has 16 different ways of saying 'the'. Not to mention starting the sentence with the Object (as opposed to the Subject) and waiting for the end of the sentence to finish to find the verb!?

Having lived here and Germany, mmh, never did see much customer service there either. I remember being shunted out of a shop hastily unless I bought something.  Mind you Saturday shopping only ever existed every 4th Saturday. Fortunately, times have changed.

My experience of Deutschland was acres of bureaucracy - held me in good stead for here.  The difference is it is extremely efficient in Germany,unlike here as we all know.  I was fined quite a few times for various non-compliance, such as buying the wrong sticker for my rubbish bin, not de-registering from the Rathaus (Mairie) when I moved to the next commune.  Oh the joys.  Nice people, awful food, great patisseries and good beer is what I remember and of course I would only ever buy a german car now. 

Deby

[SaligoBay]

Oh SB!  Do you really wish to learn a language that has 16 different ways of saying 'the'. Not to mention starting the sentence with the Object (as opposed to the Subject) and waiting for the end of the sentence to finish to find the verb!?

I like a challenge.    I did some German classes before the summer (more expat groups, it's not just Brits!) and gulp, I'm in the advanced class, based on my very dodgy schoolgirl German. Please don't test me on it (apart from that Goethe poem about the boy and the rose, I can do that!)    It's all kind of scary.  I'm relying on the "soaking in" method, but it just makes my brain feel a bit damp really.  The problem is that all German words look the same to me, which gives me a mistaken confidence in my own ability, because I feel that I know them all! 

So yes, I do have moments of questioning my own wisdom.  Everyone else questions it too.

Tell you what tho, we caught the edge of the rains that caused those floods.  Gave us the chance to use our Flippenflappenmuckenschpredders! 

[Jo53]

Was in Munich in mid-November last year and they had all the Christmas stalls and decorations out. It was really lovely and somehow much more like a British Christmas - made me feel quite homesick. Especially liked all the chocolate father christmases, gingerbread christmas stockings, etc, which were everywhere and so much bigger and more cheery than those awfully uptight, perfectly wrapped little things that sit smugly on the shiny, perfect shelves in French patisseries.

Actually every time I go abroad I really enjoy not being in France, and I get quite depressed at coming back. I suppose it's a release from the situation of being a foreigner in a country that is nevertheless your 'home'. In other countries, you can relax and enjoy them as foreign (or as proper home, in the case of the UK), without that 'do I belong here or don't I' tension. Strangely I feel the same about Brittany, which is only down the road from us but always feels like a different country to me - sort of a cross between Cornwall and Ireland but uniquely Breton as well. As the Adsav poster on the motorway says, ca c'est France, la Bretagne c'est autre chose!

Jo

[Deby]

Was in Munich in mid-November last year and

Ah! Munchen, (Munich) a lovely city and I know what you mean about the Christmas markets, lebekuchen and gluwein!  Yes, all very christmassy.  Was always very disappointed in Grenoble at the french's attempt at Christmas Markets! At start though!
Deby

[letrangere]

SB I love you to bits and would never for a moment doubt a word you say (with the exception of the relative ease of learning German) but a kind visitor from UK brought me a magazine called Channel 4 Everything France, and on page 103 of - what I assume is - the latest edition, although there's no month mentioned on the cover - is an article entitled, "Why Brits live in...Montpellier".  

"What made you choose Montpellier?"  Sunny environment, dynamic city, close to coast and countryside.  University, cinemas, theatres, two opera houses (really, SB, is there a resident company?), Olympic-size swimming pool.

"What's the weather like?"  Marvellous, most of the time.

"What's the Herault's chief attraction?"  Climate, coast and countryside combined with employment opportunities of rapidly expanding university town.  Olive groves, lavender fields, vine-clad hills and sun-baked beaches, well connected, Paris 4 hrs via TGV, Barcelona by autoroute same.

"What the property market like at the moment?"  Booming as so many people want to live, work or study here.

"How much would I need to buy a house?"  A 2 or 3 b/r within communit distance of Montpellier Euros 210,000-280,000.  Double would buy imposing maison de maitre.  (Are those prices right.)

The couple have lived in a city centre apartment for 3 years.  He's an artist.  The reality is obviously always different but you can see the initial attraction of the place, at least on paper.  I would have thought the worst aspect to living there was the possibility of acquiring that dreadful accent! 

M

 

[SaligoBay]

Yes, it's true for Montpellier city centre, and if we'd arrived here as young, child-free, and carefree, we'd have a whale of a time there!    There's lots of arty-farty stuff goes on, and the city centre is lovely.

But outside the centre, a "booming" property market means that they're building and building and building, more lotissements going up all the time, with vineyards and green land disappearing all the time.   It also means that for our small 2-bed house (which was at the top of the price range you quote) we pay about 800 euros a year taxe d'hab.     A big population means big prices for everything else too. 

Local unemployment is one of the highest in France.  Presumably as an artist this bloke didn't actually have to find a "real" job.  You know what I mean!  

Read the Rough Guide about the area, Margaret.  Apart from the Montpellier bit, I was quite shocked at how unattractive they make it all sound!   Windswept, featureless beaches.  Ugly, soulless coastal towns.   Virtually nothing else in the area mentioned, even for Sommières it just says "nothing interesting, just wander the lanes".  

En bref, Montpellier centre is delightful (apart from the dog-laden, pierced, grungy yoofs, but they're kind of obligatoire these days).   The lavender fields of Provence are only a couple of hours away along the motorway, the Calanques are 2-and-a-half hours away on the motorway, you can get into the Cévennes in just over an hour.   Or you can just veg out by your own pool, and ignore it all, like wot we've done this summer!!