A Trip to the Beach…

One of the main attractions of Montpellier is its proximity to many beaches lining the Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately, since we arrived in Montpellier in the late autumn and were immediately greeted with cold, chilly weather, we had no reason to go to the beach. My only view of the beach was an aerial view while flying over it before landing at the Montpellier airport. However, all the locals always talk about the beach – the walks they take, the games they play, the swimming they do – and this made me very anxious to at least see it…

We thought we had a great opportunity last week on Wednesday. In the morning, the sun was shining and it was actually WARM(!!!!), for the first time in 2 months. (Anything above 55 degrees is “warm” to us now…) So we made plans to visit the beach with friends in the afternoon. However, the afternoon came around and the sun was gone. In its place was plenty of clouds and a chilly cold wind. (Kind of like the capricious weather of San Francisco…) Not to be deterred, we headed to the beach anyway. Our friends took us to a beach town about a 15 minute drive from Montpellier called La Grande Motte. Despite the change in weather, we found quite a few people there, walking along the boardwalk. There were no chances of us getting on the beach itself, as we saw the beach being violently attacked by the waves. (Apparently, the violent waves were a residual from a storm further east in Nice…)

Despite the awful weather and the violent waves, we continued our walk along the boardwalk. Our efforts were rewarded, as we were treated to some beautiful views, including a gorgeous sunset…