Le premier weekend

So, my first weekend in Montpellier is drawing to a close, and this is where I have been staying: 

It's a F1 hotel in Lattes which is on the edge of Montpellier, although it is basically next to the motorway, in the middle of nowhere, with about 30 minutes walk to the nearest shops and 20 minutes to the closest tram stop! This aside, it's been comfortable and has free wifi so I'm not complaining! 

The great search for accommodation has begun, hugely helped by an American language assistant who I may be sharing an apartment with, and who has been looking for accommodation for us for the past week with the help of her contact teacher who she is staying with at the moment.

On Saturday I thought I'd better get on and help with the searching, as well as have a look round the place that I am hoping to be living in, so I managed to get the tram into Montpellier centre and then the train to Sete itself.
Sete is a very pretty coastal town, with canals running through the town, so looks like it will be a nice place to live!

I went on the 'petit train' on a tour of Sete, which was basically one of those road trains, so I got to see the famous sights of the town and learn a little about it's history.
After that I also saw what looks like boat jousting, which is a tradition in Sete, where two teams on boats joust each other and try and get the other person to fall in the water!

Will definitely be coming back to these eateries!

On my way home there was some problem with my train so I had to change trains which was all a bit confusing and I had take educated guesses about what was happening, using the little I could understand from the announcements and what my fellow passengers were doing!

The next day, Sunday, I attempted to find a bilingual church to the North of Montpellier, but after successfully navigating the tram route, I couldn't find the church anywhere!! When I finally found it, I would have been 30 minutes late, so I decided not to go in and headed back to the beautiful Place de la Comédie to have an explore of Montpellier itself. 

However, it seemed that today was the day for getting lost, as when trying to find the famous 'Arc de Triomphe' (yes there is one in Montpellier too!!), I managed to walk under the bridge it was on, thus getting completely lost again and walking in the wrong direction for almost 40 minutes! Eventually I managed to retrace my steps and found it amongst the historic centre of Montpellier which was beautiful and felt like being in 18th century France!

So my weekend has pretty much been spent as a tourist in the area that I am to be living in for the next 7 months, which has been fun, although I clearly look like a local or something as I been asked for directions by about 5 different people!

Tomorrow I am back off to Sete to meet my potential American roommate, and look at two potential apartments, which should be exciting! Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to say that I have somewhere permanent to live for the rest if my time here!