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North East
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Montpellier
Founded in AD 985 this old town is now the capital
of the Languedoc-Roussillon region. Situated on the
river Lez close to the Mediterranean, it grew as a
trading centre and was a stop for pilgrims en route
to Santiago de Compostela.
A School of Law opened in 1160 and the first medical
school in Europe was founded in the city in 1180.
Nostradamus qualified as a doctor there and even Rabelais
studied at the school. Today one in three of the city's
240,000 residents is a student. |
City
Centre
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The
Place de la Comedie |
Most of the cities oldest buildings
were destroyed in the French Wars of Religion in the
late 16th century; much of the layout of present day
Montpellier dates from 1850-1880.
Yet the old town, L'Ecusson, survives with its character
intact: 17th- and 18th-century townhouses, winding
lanes and arches lead to tiny squares, some with fountains
or weathered statues, while huge wooden doorways open
on to courtyard gardens.
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A square - or in this case, an ellipse - is the city's
focus: the marble-paved egg-shaped Place de la Comédie
has an ornate fountain in its centre and is ringed
by impressive buildings and cafes. |
One of France's great provincial art galleries is the Musee
Fabre. This museum occupies the former Hôtel de Massilian,
where Molière once played for a season. The origins
of the collection were an exhibition of the Royal Academy
that was sent to Montpellier by Napoléon in 1803.
The most important works of the collection, however, were
given by François Fabre, a Montpellier painter, in
1825. After Fabre's death, many other paintings from his
collection were donated to the gallery. Several of these
he painted himself, but the more important works were ones
he had acquired including Poussin's Venus and Adonis and
paintings from the Italian Renaissance. This generosity
was followed by donations from others, notably Valedau,
who in 1836 left the museum his collection of Rubens, Gérard
Dou, and Téniers, so it is obviously worth a visit
if you like good art.
Nimes
The ancient Nemausus, is a great place to view some of the
world's finest Roman remains. The city grew to prominence
during the reign of Caesar Augustus (27 B.C. to A.D. 14).
Today it possesses one of the best-preserved Roman amphitheaters
in the world and a near-perfect Roman temple.
The city of 135,000 is more like Provence than Languedoc,
and there's a touch of Pamplona (Spain) here in the festivals
of the corridas (bullfights) at the arena. The Spanish image
is even stronger at night, when the bodegas fill, usually
with students drinking sangría and listening to the
sounds of flamenco.
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The elliptically shaped
amphitheater is a better-preserved twin to the one
at Arles and is far more complete than the Colosseum
of Rome. It's two stories high, each floor having
60 arches, and was built of huge stones painstakingly
fitted together without mortar.
One of the best preserved arenas from ancient times,
it once held more than 20,000 spectators, who came
to see gladiatorial combats and wolf or boar hunts.
Today it's used for everything from ballet recitals
to bullfights. |
Roman
Amphitheater |
The
Maison Carree |
The Maison Carree is
the pride of Nîmes. This is one of the most
beautiful, and certainly one of the best-preserved,
Roman temples of Europe.
It was built during the reign of Caesar Augustus.
Set on a raised platform with tall Corinthian columns,
it inspired Thomas Jefferson as well as the builders
of La Madeleine in Paris.
A changing roster of cultural and art exhibits is
presented beneath an authentically preserved roof
that the city of Nîmes repaired in 1996
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The city's largest museum,
the Musee des Beaux-Arts contains French paintings
and sculptures from the 17th to the 20th centuries,
as well as Flemish, Dutch, and Italian works from
the 15th to the 18th centuries. Seek out in particular
one of G. B. Moroni's masterpieces, La Calomnie d'Apelle,
and a well-preserved Gallo-Roman mosaic. |
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Beziers
Today this town is an archetypal Languedoc city, though
its past can hardly be called provincial. Celts, Iberians,
Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Franks have
all passed through and left their mark on this welcoming
city.
Béziers is also the starting point of the man-made
Canal du Midi, which links to the Garonne River and
serves as a channel between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean,
before the construction of the Suez canal, the only
alternative to the Strait of Gibraltar.
In mid-August, a féria that has earned the
town the nickname "the French Seville" fills
the town with corridas (bullfights) and flamenco dancing
for three days |
The
Cathédrale St-Nazaire
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The Cathédrale St-Nazaire, built on the ruins of
a pagan temple in pl. de la Révolution, was destroyed
with the rest of the city in 1209 but rebuilt in the 14th
century. The best view in town is from atop the belltower,
which overlooks the countryside and a gorgeous horizon.
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