Montpellier is a young city in an old shell. More than a quarter of its population is made up of students, and its university, whose medical faculty dates back to the thirteenth century, is among the oldest in Europe. The centre is the Place de la Comédie, a huge oval square paved in stone, with the opera house at one end and the fountain of the Three Graces in the middle, and from there the old town of tight, shaded lanes spreads out, with elegant stone houses and hidden courtyards.
A short walk to the west brings you to the Promenade du Peyrou, a raised terrace laid out in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with a triumphal arch and an equestrian statue of Louis XIV. At the far end you can see the long arches of the Saint-Clément aqueduct, built in the eighteenth century to bring water to the city. In the evening, locals gather here to watch the sunset.
For riders, Montpellier is a good base. To the north the garrigue, the scrubland of holm oak, thyme and rosemary, rises into the hills toward the Pic Saint-Loup and the Cévennes, with roads that wind through vineyards and small villages. To the south and east lie the beaches, the lagoons with flamingos and the Camargue marshes. In summer the heat is intense, and the wind, the tramontane, can be strong, so start early. Spring and autumn offer clear light and quiet roads.
Fuel and food are no problem in a city of a quarter of a million. Parking a motorbike is generally easy, with many spaces reserved for two wheels. In the evenings, the bars and restaurants around the old town fill up, and the local specialities include seafood from the Thau lagoon, Sète-style fish stews and wines from the Languedoc, such as the red of Pic Saint-Loup. The tram lines, with their bright designs, are easy to follow but need respect on wet days.