It’s best known for its thrilling modern architecture, lively student population, fine dining and cocktail culture — but look more closely, and you’ll discover Montpellier is a tale of two very different cities.
And the ancient heart, whose history dates back to 985, is home to treasures just as well worth exploring as the dazzling new extension a mile or two closer to the riverbank.
The jewel in the crown of medieval Montpellier is one of the best-preserved mikvaot in Europe, yet the discovery of this 13th-century bath should not have come as the surprise it did when it was found beneath the old Jewish quarter back in 1985.
The thriving community of the time was already well-documented; a name-board in the hall of the world’s oldest medical school honours founding fathers whose ethnic origins are unmistakeable. Bienvenu de Jerusalem, Isaac Ben Abraham, Matheus Salomon, Schem Tob Ben Isaac and their many Jewish colleagues were all practising around the time that the University of Montpellier was established in 1220.
The medical school, part of the same building as the city’s spectacular St Pierre cathedral, is perched on the edge of Montpellier’s historic city centre and, like the mikveh, needs a guide if you want to look around properly.
In fact, it’s well worth arranging to explore the whole city, both old and new, with one of Montpellier’s wealth of affordable tour guides; while it’s possible to walk between many attractions created over the space of the past 1,000 years, the pedestrian route is not always obvious through a centre built on so many levels.
Faculty of Medicine, credit Montpellier Tourism
Faculty of Medicine (Photo: Montpellier Tourism)
The excellent value Montpellier Card includes a free tour, along with the mikveh, plus unlimited travel on the dramatically decorated trams that cover the whole of the city — a good place to board is the Place de la Comédie, Montpellier’s huge main square.
The mikveh itself isn’t hard to find, with an entrance on rue de la Barralerie, through which a locked door leads down to the original stone changing room sitting above the bath itself, which is constantly fed by spring water.
After marvelling at the spectacle, wander into the Bohemian Saint Roch area named after the area’s church and Montpellier’s patron saint. The route leads through an archway onto the charming Rue du Bras de Fer, paved with brightly painted steps and lined with enticing bookshops, vintage stores and boutiques.
In the shadow of the church we paused for lunch at Rose Marie, a welcoming multicultural cafe with a vintage vibe, where we enjoyed hummus and labneh with frites. Not far away lies the city’s Arc de Triomphe, the Porte du Peyrou, glorifying the achievements of Louis XIV.
But from historic Montpellier, the area known as L’Écusson, it’s easy to head back to the future via the Antigone quarter. If you imagine the Ecusson as the round end of a key, Antigone is the stem, a 1970s neighbourhood built in a strangely neoclassical style.
This engaging corridor awash with fountains gives the visitor the feeling of having landed in a movie; it was designed by architect Ricardo Bofill to be deliberately cinematic. Beyond lies the River Lez, whose banks are the beating heart of modern Montpellier.
This futuristic neighbourhood is not to be missed by any architecture buff. Highlights include a dramatic mirrored blue town hall by Jean Nouvel, Philippe Starck’s Le Nuage building clad in puffy, cloud-like panels, and L’Arbre Blanc, a circular apartment block whose balconies overlap each other in a tower of descending white petals.
Arbre Blanc©OTC3M
L'Arbre Blanc (Photo: OTC3M)
You’ll find another of Nouvel’s creations, the RBC Centre, nearby; a fabulous, glass-walled furniture emporium and concept store. And the city has gained a reputation for its dining, as much as it has for its architecture.
For a more informal choice, the Marché du Lez food hall, with its collection of vintage boutiques, is ideal for satisfying your appetite and any thirst for retail therapy at the same time — and it’s only a short stroll from Le Nuage.
At the other end of the scale, the restaurant Jardin des Sens is presided over by multi-Michelin-starred twin chefs Jacques and Laurent Pourcel, and has helped make Montpellier a dining destination. First opened more than 25 years ago in a less salubrious corner of the city, its new home is a converted 17th-century town hall, now the Hôtel Richer de Belleval, the city’s only five-star lodging.
Montpellier being determinedly democratic, the award-winning chefs feed not only the well-heeled with 12-course tasting menus in exquisite vaulted rooms under gilded, frescoed ceilings, but locals who gather for business lunches and casual dinners in the courtyard restaurant set at the heart of the hotel.
The elegant guestrooms are each uniquely decorated, while the vibrant decor of the L’Elytre bar on the first floor brings to mind an acid trip designed by Lewis Carroll.
Even if you’re not checking in, come to enjoy the location — the tranquil Place de La Canourgue, Montpellier’s oldest and loveliest square. It sits parallel to the elegant Rue Foch, lined with designer stores, leading back to the Porte du Peyrou, and an easy walk from the cathedral, School of Medicine or more culinary treats at Le Petit Jardin restaurant with its beautiful garden.
At the more affordable end of the hotel scale, the Golden Tulip Belaroia lies opposite Montpellier’s centrally located Saint-Roch station across the square, home to the lively Nectar bar; a big draw in this student city, where affordable cocktails and local Languedoc wine are considered a basic right.
Montpellier (Photo: Unsplash)
The area is also home to the city’s most famous bar, Aperture, which has won numerous international awards, although a few streets deeper into the Saint Roch area, Le Quatrième Tiers is funkier and more fun; both are presided over by excellent mixologists.
If you get a taste for the cocktails devised by Aperture’s owner Julien Escot for Maison Noilly Prat, creators of the original French vermouth made for nearly 200 years in Marseillan, the charming fishing village is only half an hour by train from Montpellier.
As well as tours of the harbour-front distillery, cocktail-making masterclasses are available for those interested in the intricacies of concocting the perfect martini.
Montpellier also borders the glorious Camargue, famed for its white horses, black bulls and pink flamingos, the vineyard trails of Pic Saint-Loup and panoramic inland hiking of Saint Guilhem, as well as beaches and lagoons a short drive away.
Yet with so much to delight the eye by day and a buzzing nightlife after dark, there’s plenty to keep you in Montpellier itself. This is one city that draws the visitor back time and again to its pair of strongly beating hearts — the ancient, where the Jewish community thrived like nowhere else in France, and the modern, ever-evolving nucleus of 21st-century prosperity.
Getting There
Direct flights from Gatwick to Montpellier cost from around £60 return with easyJet.
Rooms at the Hôtel Richer de Belleval cost from around £260 per night.
Small-group tours of the mikveh run on Saturdays priced around £4.30 per person, £10.50 as part of a one-hour tour or free with the Montpellier Card, which costs around £16.50. For more information, visit montpellier-tourisme.fr
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