Today we travel from Nice to Montpellier via Marseilles. And train delays continue to be the bane of our existence.

A morning swim for Steve before checkout and then an Uber to Gare de Nice Ville. We could have taken the local train into the main station but decided for only a few euro more it was worth not having to lug all our bags onto a suburban train. As our train was due to leave at 1.00pm and we checked out at 10.00 initially I had thought that I might investigate Nice a little more, but alas it was so hot that wandering around for a couple of hours and then getting onto a train really hot and sweaty was not my idea of fun.

A warning about Gare de Nice Ville, it is really busy (on a weekend in summer) and there is not a lot of seating except in coffee shops. On that note there are loads of options for a meal or snack either inside and outside the station. But if you have an extended stay like us, if a chair becomes vacant you run or dive for it like a dehydrated person running for an oasis, I am completely serious, it’s nuts. And then you protect said seats like you’ve struck gold and were unwilling to share it.

After what feels like an eternity our train is on the board … we’ve been here for three hours and it’s time to move. It might be even hotter today and yup we’ve got a delay, which means we miss our connection in Marseilles to Montpellier and we discover there are no later trains today 😩… but it’s all good as Steve gets us on the next available bus, thank goodness. We’re one less group for the poor man at the ticket desk has to deal with. He’s trying to find hotel rooms and buses for people who have missed connections across the country. The bus won’t get us to Montpellier at 8.30pm but hopefully not much later. Nope, we finally unlock the door to the Airbnb at just after 1.00am. We are in a really central part of the city, close to bars, restaurants, monuments and the train station, which is why Steve chose it. We’ve had to catch an Uber as the bus station is quite a distance (about 4 kms) from where we are staying, though I’m sure if we hadn’t arrived in an unknown city past midnight we probably could have caught the tram or maybe even a suburban train. Our Uber driver can only take us so far, there are lots of very thin winding streets here, as well as bollards all over the place to stop cars that aren’t local using them. and so dragging our cases past partying young people who are having the time of their lives (as they should) in the middle of the night is quite the adventure. As I often think but never say – thank goodness for google maps.

Montpellier is another quintessential European city. It is the third largest city on the Mediterranean Sea, behind Marseilles and Nice. The 2022 census tells me that about a quarter of the population of this city are students, which doesn’t surprise me, as young people are everywhere bringing light and noise to this lovely place. It is truly amazing here and we’ve got just two days of exploring ahead of us, but we make a rookie mistake.. stay tuned 😩.

Day 1 we take it pretty slowly as it’s hot and we arrived so late last night/ this morning so it takes a little while for us to get going.

Montpellier is really easy to get around there is a light rail system (which puts my home town to shame) that is easy to navigate and while there are some hills they aren’t too taxing even when it’s 39 degrees. There are also lots is places to stop for a drink along the way.

The lovely apartment we are staying has everything we need to cool a nice home cooked meal. And so Steve cooks a fab sausage, chops with roast potatoes and been dinner for the three of us that hits the spot. Then a lovely walk after dinner which included some dessert for me.