Montpellier!

Sure is A nice change of pace arriving in Montpellier. It is a casual beach town full of college students, making it more laid back and relaxing than Paris. First thing I noticed when we got to the hotel was that there was an open market across the street. The market is awesome; it has several independent vendors, including three produce stores, a bakery, a spice/nut vendor, a butchor, seafood shop, coffee shop, cheese shop, wine shop...  makes me wish that it was still like this back in the US(can't be thanks to Walmart, Publix, etc.) We walked around for awhile, went to "Le Comedie", which is the main square, for a while then headed back.

Anyways, the next day, the market just looked to good to pass up, so I went produce shopping. Here is what I decided to buy. (Pictures of the market to come later)

I made a marinara sauce (from fresh tomatoes, not canned), and added ground sausage to make a bolognese sauce.With all the fresh produce, we also made a salad, with a quick balsamic vinagarette.

We grabbed a couple 7 Euro bottles of wine from the Spanish store across the hotel. This unfamiliar "Jumilla" wine was a very pleasant surprise. It was a little dryer on the start, followed by a smooth red fruit flavor, with the slightest bit of oak/tobacco on the finish. I don't care for a strong oak flavor, but this finish rounded out the wine very nicely, showing its complexity and versatility. As it ends up, we were back for more later that night.