Montpellier, Day 2. La Grand Motte

Check-out from our tiny hotel was really slow. I'd asked the receptionist for directions to La Grand Motte, our intended first stop with the rental car. He didn't know offhand, but offered to check on Google and print out directions for us. Unfortunately, he took a phone call during the process, and this turned out to be the longest phone call in living memory. So we were later than intended picking up the car and heading off on our coastal trip around Montpelier.

La Grand Motte is a weird and wonderful sea resort to the east of Montpellier. Our Rough Guide is desperately dismissive about it all, and it certainly is all a bit tacky. Still, it's got a fine beach and has every facility anyone could wish for while on a sea holiday. It's the buildings which add the weird and wonderful touch. I have photos in the can, but the internet connection in the hotel where I'm typing this isn't happy with allowing me to connect to my albums at Picasa, so I can't upload or link to them.

Anyway, after a bit of a wander around the harbour (including a stop for Carl to check out what boat he'd like to buy) and a short rest on the beach, we decided to move on. We'd had a few moments of confusion in the car earlier on, and a few more happened again after La Grand Motte, but we finally found Le Grand Travers, a magnificently long stretch of perfect beach which was the ideal place to lie back, relax and soak up the sun. A later stop in Palavas-les-Flots proved much less enjoyable, and we headed back to Montpellier afterwards rather than stay there for food.

We booked into a hotel on the Comédie Square (chosen because they have an arrangement with a car park in the same complex) and went out again into the Montpelier night life. It was actually a bit chilly, so sitting outside didn't come into things. We just had a pre-meal drink, chose a restaurant really quickly (okay, but nowhere near as good as last night) and went looking for last night's buzz again. No doubt it was because it was Sunday that the buzz didn't really materialise, and we were back at the hotel earlier than expected.

Still a good day, though, and really enjoyable on the beach at Le Grand Travers.