We heard about this event through Claudine, the woman who is helping us with our residency's permits. It was a free tour of Montpellier for all new residents within the past three years. So, I went to the tourist office and got the paperwork to sign up. (Couldn't sign up right away because I had to translate.)

The day of the tour, we had to wake up really early. Everyone was meeting up at the Corum at 9 a.m. They served yummy little pastries and fresh orange juice and apple juice. The apple juice was so good! I should have written down the name. We thought that there was an English speaking group, but there wasn't. So, we went looking around for assistance and found a group leader that spoke some English. We couldn't understand most of the talks, but when we walked from place to place, he would fill us in.

At the end of the tour was a talk by the mayor. Again, we didn't understand much, so we played Suduko whiling waiting for the talk to be over. About an hour and a half later, we got to eat! The buffet was huge, with oysters, veggies, breads, pastries filled with fig, smoked salmon, little tartlets, some kind of ceviche, fruits, cheese, etc. It was all very delicious, but the fight for food was horrible! With so many people, it took a long time to get some food and something to drink. And when we went in search of the desserts later, all we could find were almond cookies. People would just wait at the table for a new platter to be put out and take 7 little desserts at a time!

Overall, we had a good time though. We also met some new friends! One couple had two little children and were very nice, but we haven't gotten a chance to hang out with them yet. We also met Astrid and Ed. He is English, so there is not much of a communication barrier there, and she is French, but lived in England for 6 years or so. They are both very nice and interesting people, well traveled and environmentally conscious. They volunteered in Nepal for a month and were married there in Nepalese fashion. I think they are a bit more serious than we are, but we still have a lot of laughs together.

*To see pictures of our tour, click here and here.