a little bit about montpellier...

by french standards, montpellier is a young city: its first stones were laid around 985, when the nearby cities of nîmes and arles were already 1000 years old. it's the eighth largest city in france, with 250,000 inhabitants in the city proper, and 450,000 in the agglomeration. 70,000 are students. in a couple of weeks, when the world cup of rugby starts, i'm sure the city will swell a bit more (the australian team is setting up headquarters here for the duration....). the games that will be played at the stadium here are US vs tonga on 12 sept; samoa vs tonga on 16 sept; australia vs fiji on 23 sept; and south africa vs US on 30 sept.
apparently algeria is playing in some sort of game soon, because people have been running around wrapped in flags, wearing jerseys, honking horns, and playing drums and shouting all the time.

tomorrow night a french band called the stingles is playing at la verre anglaise. yes, they play mostly covers of sting and the beatles. according to the guy who told me about them, who helps manage the bar where they're playing, they're good. and know the lyrics (unlike the musicians in sommieres who mumbled beatles hits all night long).
for breakfast today i had triple chocolate meuseli (since i didn't feel like having the other kind of chocolate cereal we have). that is to say, chocolate meuseli with little squares of dark, milk, and white chocolate. what a splendid way to begin the day...
in other food news, i've eaten a couple of times at the resto U, one of the university cafeterias. for €3, you get a large hot or cold plate (cold = 5 types of salad), one small plate from another salad bar, dessert, bread, cheese, and/or fruit (and water). really good deal, for the quality, variety, and taste. i'll never be able to eat in lenoir again.