I have been at the student residence for the ILA French Language School for a couple of days now and it has been a lovely new chapter of my immersion experience in Montpellier. I’ve met loads of new French students and through that network met students at other language schools and French natives from Montpellier. I’ve spoken in another article about the lovely park that is right next to the student residence; ‘Promenade du Peyrou’. A few of the students at my French language school and I decided to go for a stroll up there and take a look around and practice our French a bit. It’s a great place to check out while you are here learning French in France.
Clear Blue Skies For the French Students of Montpellier
As has been the case almost every day for my French language stay in the south of France we had crystal blue skies as we wandered up the cobble streets leading up to the park. I love this part of the city where the roads are in a rustic style and you have the park and the ‘arc de triomphe’ squaring up to each other in a weigh in of pretty spots.
There were several of us in our group from the ILA French Language School. Two Belgians, a Dane and me. Jill and Robert were a couple of guys from near Flanders, I have met quite a few Belgians since starting my language immersion course as like the Swiss they have half of their country speaking French so it opens lots of doors for them. Mille was a Danish girl from near Copenhagen who was in the same French lessons as me.
The Beautiful Trees of Montpellier
The first thing to strike us about the park was that it follows a path round and the sides are lined with some beautiful big trees with patchwork bark in white and grey. They are very pretty and the whole boulevard of them is gorgeous. We started to follow the track round and the sun light was drifting nicely over us from between the branches that interlocked way above our heads.
Robert spotted a couple of the other students who were here learning French in Montpellier at the ILA immersion school. They were sat on the patches of grass that follow the trees around and circle the huge monument in the centre which features a chap sat proudly on a horse over looking all of Montpellier. There were a few groups of what appeared to be students dotted around the grass. Some were working, some were having a picnic and all looked pretty jolly, I wondered if they were at university or internationals studying French in Montpellier like us.
You Get Some Glorious Views Studying French in Montpellier
At the end of the park is a little pond in front of a grand looking structure which looked like a huge stone bandstand and this structure marked the start of the ‘Saint Clement Aquéduct’. The aqueduct itself stretched way northwards out of sight but is impressive to look at and with the mountains way in the background its even more so. If you go up the stairs to the highest point of the structure you get a wonderful 360 degree view of Montpellier and you can see what a beautiful part of south France this is.
We turned back round and made our way up the other side of the park that was also lined with the silver barked trees. Along this side their seemed to be more local French people judging by their fluency in the language. There were a few groups sat drinking wine and one with a guitarist in the centre, they also all seemed to be having a very convivial time.
As we circled round we were treated to the best view of the arc and the official buildings that it rests in. In the low sunset light the arc took on a beautiful pink colour and it made me feel great about the new student residence as it was so close. I thought the area would make a good home for me for the next few weeks of my adventure of learning French in France. I was glad to be able to share it with the interesting people at the ILA French Immersion School from all over the world.