18km of 2483km so far…
After a heavy and good sleep in the hotel’s room, I woke up and quickly packed my stuff, anxious to see what will happen with my burst tire. The owner of the hotel did drive me to the closest shop to look for a spare. The first place had a very poor selection and couldn’t find the right one. The second one had a single tire of the correct size and even if it was’t what I liked, I just had to buy it, as the hotel guy was loosing his tempter. I returned to the hotel and fitted it and off I went again.
After all these I wasn’t up for much cycling and luckily Montpellier wasn’t far at all. On the way, I cycled over a freshly paved road and a layer of hot tarmac stuck on my front wheel. After what happened the day before, by the time I got to Montpellier, I went to a decent bike shop and replaced the front tire as well just to prevent any more surprises.
I send a text to one of the guys I met in the Carcassonne‘s hostel, that he had just moved there. He invited me to stay over and we ended up spending the whole day together sightseeing the city. Hubert is from Quebec and has just started architecture in Montepellier, which happens to be a big student city, with many schools and universities.
We visited a photographic exhibition of the famous aerial photographer Yann Arthus Bertrand. Then we wondered around the old part of the city, which is rather big and consists of hunderds of small alleys. At one end of the old city, there is a big plaza from where you can see the old water system and many buildings in Roman style. In general Montpellier is fantastic and very lively, with its fantastic old city, loads of events and crazy students.
After a few hours of walking, we went back to the flat to cook and eat. As it was still early, we decided and went out again for some drinks. After more than a month living in my tent, I am very glad I had this opportunity to out again and socializing with french people.
Never mind the beer, the girl in the background to the right looks like she’s about to have an alien burst out of her chest
hehe
proper photo boom!