Montpellier, France

The first time I traveled abroad was in 2005, the summer before my senior year of high school. I went with a trip through the school that had us spending 3 weeks with a French family in southern France (in or near Montpellier) and then 4 days in Paris before returning home.

The photo quality isn't great for many of these images. Not only was camera technology much more primitive back then (eleven years ago!!), but I also had only one 256 MB SD card with me on which to store my photos, so I was very limited on space. Nonetheless, these are some of my favorite photos from Montpellier.

Fanciest McDonald's Ever.

My first time seeing the Mediterranean Sea!
At a beach near Montpellier

The backyard of my host family was *gorgeous* and had an adorable pool

My host family also had a table set up under some grapevines. We ate outside nearly every night, because the weather in southern France is pretty much perfect. (Mosquitos notwithstanding.)

The ruins of an ancient Roman bridge we visited near Montpellier

A French candy shop!

More delicious candy and cookies!

I was lucky enough to return to Montpellier again in 2010. After the Mediterranean Cruise my husband's family took (which started and ended its voyage in Barcelona, Spain), my husband and I extended our vacation for a few more days so that we could take a train to Montpellier to see my French family again, and then see Paris (which I had seen on my 2005 trip, but my husband had never visited before).

Unfortunately, the train we took was delayed - apparently someone fatally jumped on the tracks ahead of us, causing our train to sit for a few extra hours before arriving at its destination. So we didn't get to Montpellier until after dark, and then had to catch our train to Paris the next day. Our sightseeing time in Montpellier was limited (hence the lack of pictures from 2010 in this Montpellier collection), but we did get to visit with my French family again, which was undeniably cool.