French fascination for India

After Barcelona, Anchit and I decided to travel together since we were heading in the same direction. Our first destination was Montpelier in France.

The Beach at Palavas

Montpelier is a medium sized French town with a large university population. As you walk into town from the train station, you enter a large square lined with cafes, restaurants and a Mary-go-round. There is also a futuristic tram that runs through. Unfortunately, the beauty of this place is only skin deep. We soon found what a boring place this was. Beyond the square, there is little else besides a mall. Sadly, we ended up spending a significant amount of time in the mall and even took the futuristic tram around in a circle.

During the day, we found a big gathering of people outside the Montpelier swimming pool with a DJ mixing Loud techno music in the background. It was a uber strange crowd with many homosexuals mixed with families, children, teenagers, street bums, druggies and two confused looking Chinese and Indian guys. I suppose there is so little to do that everyone has to go to the outdoor techno party.

The main square

Adjusting to French time was not automatic. On our first night, by about 9pm, we decided to look for dinner. In Spain, people have just begun looking for food but in France, people are ready for bed. As a result, we were regulated to a cafeteria styled restaurant in the mall. I ordered a plate of meatballs and was given ..... 5 meatballs on a big white plate! To my relief, the cook pointed me to a nearby counter with loads of sides you can take at will. I heaped on piles of carrots, rice and fries. Their gravy was surprisingly good and our plain meal turned out to be pretty good.

Anchit is a chameleon. When you travel, you are often asked where you are from and Anchit could reply based on what the person would be most impressed with. He has three options because he grew up in India, studied Highschool in Singapore and is now in college in London. In France, there happens to be a strange fascination for India so he shifted from telling people he was from London (in Spain) to telling people he was from India. Everywhere we go, people stared at him, especially the men since Montpelier is famous for it's large gay community. In one incident at the tourist office, we were treated poorly by a snotty girl who worked there. However, upon learning that Anchit is from INDIA, her entire attitude made a renaissance. She begun to enthusiastically tell Anchit about her exciting travels to India the year before and was suddenly very helpful. Did I also mention that Anchit can speak English in either an Indian, Singlish or London accent? A chameleon he is.

On our second day, we took a bus to a beach side town called Palavas de Flots. Because the bus does not quite reach there, we were each given a mountain bike to complete the rest of the journey. It was an awesome ride into town beside the beach which took about 45 minutes.

Palavas is gorgeous with very few non-French tourists. The centre of town is a canal lined with seafood restaurants and boat merchants selling their catch of the day. We settled in an excellent restaurant where Anchit had a gi-normous bowl of mussels and I had sea escargots (Bulots) and a special local fish with easily removable transparent bones.