Monpellier offers Antigone and L'Arbre Blanc

[22mar22] Wake-up at 7 – finally, a good sleep! We had promised ourselves a quieter day so as to recover a bit. We figure on a café & croissant, but the first outdoor café we try tells us “no baked goods delivered today”, and others are likewise. So we find an obscure pretzel place.

Late morning we decide to walk through the Polygone shopping center (buy a baguette at the chain bakery Brioche Dorée) to the Antigone planned residential area, to the river and l'Arbre Blanc apartment building. Long walk. Antigone is dramatically concrete, 70s modern style, but now rather down-in-the-mouth, starting to feel abandoned or dilapidated. Note that its architect Ricardo Bofill just recently died.

However, L'Arbre Blanc, the White Tree building is a stunning design with huge balconies cantilevered out. The nearby River Lez (pronouced lez) is quite channeled – we watch some skateboarders attempt to ride down the steep concrete banks without crashing into the water. Long walk back a parallel route: eleven thousand steps! We decide to make dinner at home: ramen and a baguette.

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