Showing 1-12 of 12 results
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Cathédrale St-Pierre
To the north of place Royale du Peyrou, off blvd Henri IV, is the Jardin des Plantes (off blvd Henri IV) (1593), France's oldest botanic garden. Opposite the the Jardin des Plantes is Cathédrale St-Pierre with its disproportionately tall 15th-century porch.
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Hôtel de Varennes
During the 17th and 18th centuries, Montpellier's wealthier merchants built grand private mansions with large inner courtyards. Fine examples are Hôtel de Varennes, a harmonious blend of Romanesque and Gothic.
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Hôtel des Trésoriers de France
The 17th-century Hôtel des Trésoriers de France today houses the Musée Languedocien. Within the old quarter are several other mansions, each marked by a descriptive plaque in French.
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Hôtel St-Côme
Hôtel St-Côme was the city's first anatomy theatre for medical students. Nowadays it's a Chamber of Commerce boasting a large inner courtyard.
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Jardin des Plantes
To the north of place Royale du Peyrou, off blvd Henri IV, is the Jardin des Plantes (1593), France's oldest botanic garden. Opposite the the Jardin des Plantes is Cathédrale St-Pierre (off blvd Henri IV) with its disproportionately tall 15th-century porch.
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La Grande Motte
Further northwards, about 20km southeast of Montpellier, is La Grande Motte. Purpose-built on the grand scale back in the 1960s to plug the tourist drain southwards into Spain, its architecture, considered revolutionary at the time, now comes over as fairly heavy and leaden, contrasting with the more organic growth of adjacent Grau du Roi, deeper rooted and a still-active fishing port.
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Musée Atger
Installed in the Faculté de Médecine, the Atger Museum is a unique collection of some 500 drawings that were left to the Medical School in the 19th century by Xavier Atger (1758-1833), a great art lover. Landscapes, historical scenes and even caricatures - the extensive collection includes every genre.
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Musée du Vieux Montpellier
Musée du Vieux Montpellier, a storehouse of the city's memorabilia from the Middle Ages to the Revolution, is upstairs in the Hôtel de Varennes.
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Musée Fabre
This museum is the city's cultural showpiece and holds one of France's richest collections. Founded in 1825 by the Montpellier artist François-Xavier Fabre, its collection is highly diverse and includes Flemish, Dutch, Italian, Spanish and French works and paintings from all of the great European schools from the 16th to the 18th century.
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Musée Languedocien
The Museé Languedocien displays the area's rich archaeological finds as well as objets d'art from the 16th to 19th centuries. The collection began with objects given, donated or sold by members of the Archaeological Company of Montpellier.
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Palavas-les-Flots
The closest beaches to Montpellier are at Palavas-les-Flots, 12km south of the city and very much Montpellier-on-Sea in summer. Take TaM bus No 131 from the Port Marianne tram stop. Heading north on the coastal road towards Carnon, you stand a good chance of seeing flamingos hoovering the shallows of the lagoons on either side of the coastal D21.
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Place Royale du Peyrou
Place Royale du Peyrou is a wide, tree-lined esplanade. At the eastern end lies the Arc de Triomphe (1692) and at the western end lies the Château d'Eau. Leading from this hexagonal water tower is the 18th-century Aqueduc de St-Clément, under which there's an organic food and second-hand books market on Saturday and pétanque (a game not unlike lawn bowls played with heavy metal balls on a sandy pitch; also called boules ) most afternoons.
Showing 1-12 of 12 results
