Elsien's Traveblogue
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Lunaret
Montpellier, Lunaret Zoo and Wildlife Park, Good Friday 2013
In 1910 Henri de Lunaret gave the area to Montpellier who can start to use it after his and his sister's death. She died in 1939 and initially the Agricultural University looks after it until 1964, when it becomes a natural reserve and wildlife park, with a zebra as its first foreign resident.
The park is enlarged a few times and it is now a large natural woodland by the river Lez. The natural reserve is free to walk through. A large number of the animals roams relatively freely too, so wherever you walk, you may catch glimpses of wildlife.
I had forgotten my camera, but found these images on the Internet, with thanks to the original posters.
It was a beautiful day, like in the pictures, even though it was only the end of March. We walked most of the time in short sleeves. From Lunaret you cannot get right next to the river any more, it has been fenced off, apparently something to do with people bringing their dogs in from that side.
However, you can walk all the way along the Lez from near where we live, with occasional interruptions, but certainly from the Domaine de Méric where the Impressionist painter Frédéric Bazille lived. We'll try the whole walk one of these days!
In 1910 Henri de Lunaret gave the area to Montpellier who can start to use it after his and his sister's death. She died in 1939 and initially the Agricultural University looks after it until 1964, when it becomes a natural reserve and wildlife park, with a zebra as its first foreign resident.
The park is enlarged a few times and it is now a large natural woodland by the river Lez. The natural reserve is free to walk through. A large number of the animals roams relatively freely too, so wherever you walk, you may catch glimpses of wildlife.
I had forgotten my camera, but found these images on the Internet, with thanks to the original posters.
It was a beautiful day, like in the pictures, even though it was only the end of March. We walked most of the time in short sleeves. From Lunaret you cannot get right next to the river any more, it has been fenced off, apparently something to do with people bringing their dogs in from that side.However, you can walk all the way along the Lez from near where we live, with occasional interruptions, but certainly from the Domaine de Méric where the Impressionist painter Frédéric Bazille lived. We'll try the whole walk one of these days!
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Dagory Montpellier February 2013
Dagory, Montpellier February / March 2013
I can't believe it has been three months since the last blog post again! Well, I've been to Holland at the beginning of January, to UK end of January for Burns' Night at Hoops pub at the Henry Moore Foundation, in deepest, darkest Hertfordshire, and again to UK mid March, via Charleroi and Brussels and in-between I have been working like a slave with my e-learning students and doing zillions of tests for my employer language school in Brussels...
Any fun and outings? Yes, a few: apart from regular evenings at the Corum in Montpellier for a concert or the Royale cinema for direct transmissions of operas from the Met in New York and a chamber music concert in the beautiful Hotel Magnol, there have been a few theatre outings to the Theatre Pierre Tabard.
I can't believe it has been three months since the last blog post again! Well, I've been to Holland at the beginning of January, to UK end of January for Burns' Night at Hoops pub at the Henry Moore Foundation, in deepest, darkest Hertfordshire, and again to UK mid March, via Charleroi and Brussels and in-between I have been working like a slave with my e-learning students and doing zillions of tests for my employer language school in Brussels...
Any fun and outings? Yes, a few: apart from regular evenings at the Corum in Montpellier for a concert or the Royale cinema for direct transmissions of operas from the Met in New York and a chamber music concert in the beautiful Hotel Magnol, there have been a few theatre outings to the Theatre Pierre Tabard.
http://theatrepierretabard.com/
We saw a performance about Margaret of Anjou, Shakespearian mother and wife of kings of England, which I really liked and mid February we took part in a pre-performance walk to attract some publicity for Jean-Michel Dagory's show about his walk across France, in 2000, following the meridian that runs through France:
Here he is, giving a little taster of his show in the Parc Clémenceau in Montpellier.
Dagory is a moderately well-known actor and writer, is on IMDB:
We walked into Montpellier with him, some of us dressed as died-in-the-wool walkers, although my legs gave out at the end as it wasn't a walk, it was an amble, with frequent stops, the worst for my knee.
He is a brilliant conferencier, intersperses his stories with snatches of song, some audience participation. A very small audience, alas, the Théatre Pierre Tabard is only small but could do better on publicity... Or maybe there are just too many theatres in Montpellier ...
We also saw Molière's Dom Juan there, followed by a piece about the death of Don Juan.
Here's Dagory once more, this time stopping at the Place de la Comédie:
Spring is here, so time for more outings! I'll stop working so hard from now!
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