When planning our most recent trip to France, we knew we'd be spending our final two weeks in Paris, but where to go before then? The Missus wanted to visit places She had never been before and Brittany, Normandy, and the Loire was high on Her list. But I just didn't think visiting those locales at the end of November, beginning of December would be the best time. Nice and Marseille was high on that list, but in the end we thought visiting Carcassonne would be interesting and I'd always wanted to visit Toulouse, but we needed one more "leg" of the trip. We'd already been to the main cities in Provence….those posts never got done because like I mentioned in this post; after Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, we spent a night in Paris before heading to Provence, we planned 5 nights there, but got stranded because of a rail strike and ended up flying from Marseille to CDG and staying at the airport. This was at the end of 2019. So, while I started doing posts on that trip….well, you know what happened, right? Those posts on Provence never got done. Maybe one day I'll just to a COMC thing. Anyway, while I love train travel, the Missus has a "no more than 4 – 4 1/2 hour" rule when it comes to travelling by rail, which is why I have to plan on stays in places like Stuttgart, which is perfectly fine with me as I get to explore. After doing a bit of research, I developed an interest in Montpellier. Now you really won't find much about Montpellier in those guidebooks, but the city looked interesting; from the meandering old town, to having one of the oldest Universities in the world. And I'd read that fully one-fourth of the city's population is composed of students! That contrast would make for quite an interesting visit!
In fact, we could see the contrasts from the time we arrived. The apartment we were staying in was a mere ten minute walk from the train station. We went thru a tunnel that connected the tram line to quite a modern area with a mall. The apartment was in the interesting looking building connected to the Ibis Hotel.
We had a very nice view of the city.
Just steps away to the east was a large shopping mall named Le Polygone. Just to the west is the main square of the city, Place de la Comédie. This lively and lovely square features restaurants, fast food joints ("McDo" does great business with the students), cafe's, a movie theatre, and the lovely National Opera. Because we didn't have a map of the city, we stopped by the Tourist Information center and got the "detailed" map (,50 €) which we used along with Google Maps to get around.
At the heart of the square is the Fountain of the Three Graces.
The square is nicknamed L'Oeuf ("egg") because of its oval shape. From here there are arteries heading in all directions. We decided to take one of the side streets, away from the Ecusson (the old city), down Rue de Verdun for a light lunch at a place I had on my list; Green Lab.
Because of the large student population, I thought that there would be some nice casual eateries with diverse cuisines and with just one notable "fail", these places delivered. Green Lab features Lebanese and Middle Eastern influenced vegetarian and vegan dishes in a "fast-casual" type set-up. You order at the counter and they'll bring out your food to you. The plates looked pretty large so we just ordered the Falafel and Hummus (9,99 €) which ended up being enough for the both of us.
While we didn't care much for the pita, which was too dense, hard, and "bready" for us, we thought the falafel were quite good. Crisp outside, mildy creamy interior, nice nutty herbaceousness, this was actually better than what we'd had at L'As du Fallafel in Paris! The hummus was quite rustic, the nutty – savory tones came thru quite well.
This was actually better than we expected and enough to hold us until our Michelin Starred dinner.
Green Lab Comédie
12 Rue de Verdun
34000 Montpellier, France
We headed back to the square and decided to do some exploring. We headed up Rue de la Loge, one of the main shopping/downtown streets in Montpellier. We had arrived on a Saturday and I had thought that things might be a bit crazy….but we found that Montpellier had a relaxed, fun, community loving vibe to it. We got a kick out of this band with an interesting "cast" of characters playing on Place Jean Jaurès.
And as we headed further up the street, the Missus quickly noticed these tags on the ground.
Well, I didn't know that Montpellier is on the Camino de Santiago!
We enjoyed wandering up the streets of the Ecusson.
And we arrived at this.
Yep, Montpellier has it's version of the Arc de Triomphe, the Porte du Peyrou which was completed in 1693 and is actually modeled after Porte Saint-Denis, which I mentioned in this post. Right past the Porte is Place Royale de Peyrou.
Which has a striking Water Tower designed to look like a Greek Monument.
Which actually used to store water!
With an aqueduct.
That used to route water to the cistern in the tower.
There are gardens and a promenade.
And on this day it looked like a large meeting of motorcycle clubs was going on.
As we walked back toward the Arc we heard chanting and drums…….it was a protest.
Which made its way into Place de Peyrou.
It was interesting, anti hate protest meets biker clubs…….with no incidents. You gotta love it!
On a lively Saturday in Montpellier.
On the way back to the apartment, we started taking notice of the public art along the side streets.
Along with churches and other grand structures down alleyways and side streets. This is the Église Saint-Roch.
Montpellier was turning out to be quite an interesting stop.
And while we loved the heads of kings of Judah that originally graced Notre Dame and were severed during the French Revolution ("off with their heads I say!!!!") in what is called 
It looked pretty much the same and I'll say that the fries where just as good, slightly crisp, with a creamy interior as it used to be.
So I took a bite and…got all bread? What the heck. It seemed like about half the sandwich was all bread. Strange. I'm thinking either they are still getting used to cutting the bread in the correct manner or they are using less ingredients. Anyway, the shrimp didn't seem of the same quality and seemed overcooked and rubbery; it also looked smaller than before, see the photo below. That's the cap from the little container of sauce for the fries.
These wings were just drenched in sauce. There was a huge pool of sauce at the bottom of the box. The two or three pieces on the top, while over sauced held up fine, but the pieces on the bottom were a soggy mess.
Doesn't even look like it's from the same place, does it?
We were instructed to start with the "naan", basically a buttery cube of flatbread with wonderfully flavored fowl in it. The skewered liver was wonderfully gamy and delicious. 
A sort of 'Gastropub' atmosphere with about 20 beers on tap, various seating sections (including covered outdoors), we were given a bottle of chilled water along with chilled glasses with our menu.
A simple menu-and there is a Monday-Friday Happy Hour, too (from 4-6:30)
We decided to try the Cheese Curds ($12). Wisconsin cheese, breaded and fried. If you bite into a hot one, it does indeed 'squeak'..but otherwise it's just a good bunch of piece of breaded fried cheese, served with a very nice homemade Ranch.
The Stuffed Jumbo Portobello mushroom ($15) can be a meal. Cream cheese, mozzarella and parmesan topped with a panko crust and placed in balsamic syrup…Oh my!
Cross section shows how many flavors you can get in a bite. 
We also ordered a Cobb Salad ($14). This tasted really good, very fresh ingredients (egg, bacon, avocado, tomato, gorgonzola and a nice Blue Cheese dressing. The presentation…eh. 
You can order 'to go' or find a seat. The 'to go' menu is on the wall to make it easy for the 'to go' people.
The 'for here' menu; a bit larger.
A cheese manakish ($4.99). A small version of a herby cheese pizza with no sauce. Excellent fresh bread: thin, slightly crisp, slightly chewy.
Here's a zaatar manakish (3.99) add cheese ($1.50). Zaatar is a spice mixture of thyme, oregano, sesame seeds, sumac and salt. It's herby, nutty, salty, savory and tangy. Sumac by itself has the 'tang' you get from lemon juice. In any case, this combination of zaatar and cheese is really good.
Six tweaks of falafel ($5.99). A nice version. Quite crunchy. The tahini dip is so creamy!
Kabab Plate ($13.99) Two very large beef kabobs with rice, grilled tomato and raw onion. Easily shareable.
An order of baba ghannouj (6.99) arrived with pieces of hot-from-the-oven pita. The roasted eggplant based dip is smoky and smooth and has a sesame flavor from the tahini. Olive oil and lemon juice as well as garlic round out the flavors. The version here is just lovely.
The Appetizers plate ($15.99). Choice of four. Plan on taking some home; the serving platter is deceptively deep. Hommus, fattoush, baba ghannouj and in the center, tabboule. All the salads are made here daily. The hommus and baba ghanouj are excellent versions. The fattoush is primarily a 'bread salad' with the pieces of fried pit toping lettuces, tomato, cucumber and other vegetables. It's another craving I've had. The tabboule is parsley, tomato, cucumber, mint, green onion and bulgur-crunchy. Its dressing (lemon juice, paprika, salt and pepper with olive oil) really showcases an excellent quality olive oil. 
A single beef kabab ($3) is sometimes quite enough for a nice snack/small meal. (This kabob is smaller than the two beef kabobs served on the kabab plate).
Free hot tea at the back; serve yourself.