A Goal

Yes, it was 22 degrees Fahrenheit. Yes, the wind was blowing out of the Alps at about 30 miles an hour, so the wind-chill was ridiculous. But the sun was shining, and I'll tell you one thing: Montpellier is beautiful. For some reason, I kept taking pictures of alleyways.



This won't be easy. It's going to take a minimum of €30,000, I'd say. I have no idea where I'm going to come up with that kind of money, but I'm going to try. Because from the way it looks to the way people act to the access to other places, this is the Europe I want to live in. Forever? I doubt it. Or maybe. Hell, I may be as irritated with Montpellier after 11 years as I am with Berlin. But it's less crowded than Paris, less expensive (although rents are about 20% higher than they are here and apartments are hard to come by when school's in session: half the population, almost, are students), and less visited by tourists. Not that I have anything against tourists, because I just was one for two and a half days. Of course, it's also less visited by various cultural attractions -- bands, museum shows -- and has a much smaller population. "Provincial" was the word one guy used. Of course, he owns an English-language bookstore there, and was shocked to hear we didn't have any in Berlin. Yeah, I know from provincial. And his was one of two I visited.

I'm still sorting through impressions and so on, but I did want to get a couple of pictures up because people have been asking for them.

More later. Meanwhile, here's another alley.