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1. Of course you could do all of the following or just register to our cultural scavenger hunt!
2. Take a look at this map of the city to have a real idea on how it is built and organized.
3. Place du Peyrou
On the outskirts of the Ecusson of Montpellier (the name given to the historic center because of its shape), the Promenade du Peyrou, laid out to contain the statue of Louis XIV on horseback, is one of the favourite places of the people of Montpellier. The arc de triomphe and the château d'eau (water tower), extend into the aqueduct and are models of classical. It was completed in 1774, the date of Louis XVI's accession to the throne, by Jean Giral, the architect. The Peyrou esplanade gives a panoramic view of the city, of the ancient arches of a Roman aqueduct, Les Arceaux and of the surrounding area. Get Google maps directions>
4. Place de la Comedie
Place de la Comédie is Montpellier's central square.
Also known as l'OEuf (the Egg) because of its original oval shape, it is one of the largest pedestrian areas in Europe.
Standing proud in the middle is the statue of the Three Graces, Montpellier's emblematic goddesses.
All around you'll see street artists, people on the move, and others taking a leisurely break at one of the many outside cafés.
Located in the historic city centre, known as the Ecusson, the enticing downtown area for those who take pleasure in shopping. Get Google maps directions>
5. The Ecusson (Old town)
The Ecusson district is one of the most famous neighbourhoods in Montpellier with the place de la Comédie representing its focal point.
It's right in the heart of the city and dates, like the Opéra Comédie, from the nineteenth century.
The Ecusson district is pedestrianised allowing for pleasant strolls through its pretty squares losing yourself in the little streets. It's also a great shopping area! Get Google maps directions>
6. Antigone neighborhood
The district is built on the grounds of the former Joffre Barracks, of which only Montpellier's citadel remains. In 1977, Mayor Georges Frêche started the process that led to the construction of the district.
The district's architect was the Spanish Ricardo Bofill and his Taller de Arquitectura. He designed a series of grand neo-classical structures, enlarging classical motifs such as pediments, entablatures and pilasters to gigantic scale. The district is located between the old centre of Montpellier and the river Lez. On the opposite side of the river is the Hôtel de la Région Languedoc-Roussillon, another Bofill design. Together they make for a unified visual axis one kilometre in length, nicknamed the Champs-Élysées of Montpellier.
After Antigone, more sites on this side of Montpellier were developed.
The buildings consist mostly of low-income housing, public facilities and local shops.
The Antigone project, on a 36 hectares plot, has been one of the largest single developments completed in France and attracted worldwide interest. In 1979, the newly elected municipal council of Montpellier decided to undertake urban development and developea new district on a site near the city centre. The purpose of this town-planning operation was to develop a new district along a central axis which would provide for the city's balanced eastward expansion and link the historical centre to the river Lez. The architect Ricardo Bofill created the master plan and most of the buildings in Antigone. From the design of the plazas to the details of the facades and exterior furniture and landscape elements, everything is proportionally and thematically related, creating a stylistic unity in a district full of boulevards and plazas, parks, major residential areas, shops, schools and sports, cultural and administrative facilities.
Antigone's projects designed by Bofill included:
- La Place du Nombre d'Or (288 apartments and shops)
- Les Echelles de la Ville (offices)
- Les Rives du Lez (landscape design of Lez riverbed)
- Headquarter of the Regional government of Languedoc-Roussillon
- Le Port Juvénal (350 apartments)
- Hotel Mercure (5- star hotel)
- Le Parnasse (100 apartments)
- Le Capitole (apartments and shops)
- La Tour Europe (offices)
- Les Guinguettes (2 restaurants)
- Olympic Swimming Pool of Montpellier Get Google maps directions>
The city’s proactive policy means that Montpellier finally has the modern museum that donators had hoped for. The museum was recently renovated and extended to 9,200 sq. m, allowing over 800 works to be shown at the same time. In 1779, a few very clever people founded the Fine Arts Society in Montpellier. But only with the donation and legacy of the painter François Xavier Fabre did the institution become a real museum boasting Italian and French works from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Antoine Valedau, a wealthy stockbroker, would then leave the museum his fine collection of Flemish and Dutch paintings in 1836. Finally, Alfred Bruyas carried on the tradition and donated his vast collection of French paintings from the first half of the nineteenth century. The sculptures are organised around work by Houdon, Pajou and Germaine Richier.
Get Google maps directions>
8. La Panacée
La Panacée, center of contemporary culture, will play host to meetings, exchanges and hybrids between different artistic disciplines.
La Panacée will offer audiences of all ages the chance to experiment with a new relationship to art. Somewhere between spectator and actor, each visitor can explore the representations and practices at the heart of contemporary artistic creation.
This new Montpellier center of art is the latest in a string of major art centers created in Europe over the last ten years, including the CCCB in Barcelona, Marres in Maastricht, Garage in Moscow, and the Strozzina in Florence. These centers identify with the notion of contemporary culture as a means of championing a thematic approach to social issues and of de-compartmentalizing art audiences.
La Panacée prioritizes work around three major disciplines and their interactions:
- Visual arts: photography, art video, fine arts, cinema, design, comic strip, graphic design.
- Digital: digital communication techniques, social networks, blogs.
- New written forms: twitter, blogs, SMS, Facebook).
- Technological environments and the way they transform artistic practice and our processes of perceiving and thinking.
- Transformations in the materiality of the written word. Support for writing projects on new platforms that promote the meeting of authors and artists of different disciplines.
- A critical view of the art system. In the context of monographic or collective exhibitions, La Panacée will recruit artists and curators from France and beyond who ask tough questions of the art system. Focuses will include notions of authorship and property, exhibition and the visitor experience.
- An openness to dynamic art scenes abroad. In order to create decentralized cooperation between foreign and local artists. Get Google maps directions>
9. Église Saint-Roch
The Church of Saint Roch was initiated in the nineteenth century, replacing another church located on this site. It was named in honour of Saint Roch, the patron of the city of Montpellier. Legend has it that he was born in this city. The construction of the church is in Neo-Gothic style. The church has been completely renovated and today you can admire two beautiful stained glass windows taken from another church, representing St. Paul and St. Roch, installed there during its renovation. The Church of Saint Roch hosts a pilgrimage ritual every year. Get Google maps directions>
10. Chateau de Flauguergues
Built at the end of the 17th century, Flaugergues is one of the so-called 'Follies', built in the countryside around Montpellier. 'Houses in the Foliage', they were the result of a new order of aristocracy, whose wealth came from their service to the King. Planted in the heart of rural domains, they are surrounded by magnificent gardens. They would also become the summer residences of the rich and famous of Montpellier during the 18th century.
In 1696 Etienne de Flaugergues, an advisor to the Cour des Comptes (national audit office) in Montpellier, bought the estate to which he would give his name. Over the next 45 years he expanded and embellished the 'House in the Fields', giving it its distinctive touches. It would seem that the use and arrangement of the grounds around which Flaugergues was built, its gardens, and the simple but well-groomed quality of the buildings, served as a role model for numerous 'Follies' in the area, these second homes of the Court advisors who wanted to live comfortably in the countryside without being too far from the town.
In 1811 Flaugergues became a holiday residence for the Boussairolles, owners of a nearby château. And so handed down from generation to generation, Flaugergues today bears witness to the way of life of the important people of Montpellier of the time.
The architecture of the château is impressive, not only in the buildings but also in the overall arrangement of space. The exact identity of the architect is unknown, but several theories have been put forward. It is likely that between 1696 and 1730 the refurbishment of the château and its surroundings was undertaken by a succession of different people.
Thanks to the strong relief on which the original house was built, the architect was able to create neighbouring spaces on different levels, each with its own unique character. Every space, surrounded by walls, hedges, trees and balustrades, provokes curiosity to discover the mysteries contained within the next area.
"…Built in the spirit of the 17th century château, with a meticulous freestone construction, the house offers a monumental image, surprising for a château which in fact reveals itself to be a home of great simplicity and very slight depth. With steps leading up to a wide terrace, the château rises to three levels, and its principal façade facing the gardens displays no fewer than seven bays of windows. The walls are painted with a sandy, almost golden-coloured whitewash. At the centre of the façade is the Doric-inspired entrance, its lateral pilasters supporting an entablature with sculpted rose metopes. Once again in the tradition of the 17th century, sober string courses with flat mouldings emphasize the different levels. The first floor is designed to be the principal one, with its windows embellished with dripstones; at either end of the façade, the windows open onto wrought iron balconies supported by quinches... At the back the building is almost blind, with false windows maintaining the symmetry.
The roofs, underlined at the base by a cornice, are covered in traditional Roman tiles. Their crest is marked by ridge sheathing made of varnished terracotta in the form of vases, in colours of yellow and green, and by ornamental balls on plinths (these originate from Saint-Jean-de-Fos). The whole structure gives an impression of nobility…" Get Google maps directions>
Carmen is our Montpellier local representative, we asked her what an ideal day of leisure in Montpellier could look like, what she'd suggest doing from early morning to late at night?
Here is what she suggests. Don't hesitate to contact Carmen on Twitter @bigcitychase #Montpellier #questionforCarmen if you have questions for her, we may publish your conversation in this blog if she thinks it might be useful to other Montpellier visitors.
Carmen from Montpellier for Big City Chase Montpellier :
"Hello, my name is Carmen, I am from camargue and moved to Montpellier city center 10 years ago
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