We’re now in Narbonne, a small city I’ve been dreaming about for five years, when we spent a delightful half-day in May here.
Leaving Montpellier was difficult, and only the prospect of going to Narbonne stopped me from sobbing all the way to the train station.
Narbonne is a mere hour’s train ride from Montpellier, and friends we made in the larger city advised us to live in the larger city and visit the smaller one. I see the wisdom of that.
Narbonne’s population is about 1/10 of Montpellier’s. It offers all the standard urban amenities, including a TGV (high-speed rail) station. It’s compact, walkable, and I get the sense that if we stayed here long enough, we would recognize our neighbors when we’re strolling along the banks of the canal. Housing is also cheaper here than in Montpellier.
But it lacks the vibrancy and energy of Montpellier’s youthful demographic.
Observationally (I’ve not looked up statistics), Narbonne is older and less diverse than Montpellier. It’s not a senior retirement community; we see plenty of children and people of all ages. But definitely, the elderly population here is more significant, and we also see fewer people who may have relocated from Arab or African countries.
Aside from the lower cost of housing, the primary logistical benefit of establishing a French home in Narbonne instead of Montpellier is that it’s closer to an international airport. Barcelona is just two hours by TGV, which we’ll be taking on Sunday to spend a few days in that Catalan jewel city before flying back to North Carolina.
Narbonne is lovely, relaxed and mostly basking in the Mediterranean sun. As I write, we have a chilly, dreary day, and we plan to take advantage of it by finally going for a cassoulet (a hearty baked bean and duck dish) for lunch.
This city is older than Montpellier in another sense. As we learned, Montpellier is rather young as French cities go, only being established about 1,000 years ago. Narbonne was Rome’s first capital in Gaul. Yesterday we toured the Horreum, which is an underground network of storage rooms built by the Romans some 2,000 years ago.
And, some other photos from Narbonne:
À bientôt !
Loved the pictures of the ancient storage rooms!