Montpellier--to visit or stay the night??

It's a university town and nice enough, but not much of general tourist interest. Carcassonne to Nimes is only a couple of hours. Aigues-Mortes (just east of Montpellier maybe fifteen miles) would be a great stop. You're going to need every night you can scrounge up for Nimes and its surrounds.

That helps some. So does the city have enough to do to make you stay the night or would you just head on to Nimes after a lunch? My husband isn't much of a window shopper so if it's pretty enough to just stroll around and have lunch it might be a better idea? After Nimes I'm off to Nice, but have heard we should stay in Antibes and just take a day trip to Nice and Cannes. Any advice for the Cote d'Azur? We'll be flying out of NCE.

I'm missing something. Carcassonne to Nimes is a two-hour drive. You'd pass through Montpellier at the one point five hour mark. Why spend the night? It'd be a good place to live since it has everything you'd want. You really have to dig to find the remnants of it's history - - except for the salt flats out to the east which where first developed by the Phonecians. Some people think the aquaduct is something special, but it's only a couple of hundred years old. So is the tower that was initially an observatory, I think. Essentially, the city has a triumphal arc, a main square, and an old gate. Other than that, it's just a city. I suspect that you'd be bored to tears after an hour.

I agree with Ed that you should skip Montpellier and just go to Aigues-Mortes, a fascinating, walled city , very walkable, for lunch. Be sure to taste the special wine that comes only from there: vin gris. Then go on to Nimes.

What the heck.....grey wine???? Sludge?? One step down from black wine from Cahors? No wonder I stick to distilled tatter juice.

I did me a little googling and found out that in addition to the grey wines, there are "vins des sables" as well. Yep, sandy wines.

Karen's right. Vin gris is in North Africa. It's vin des sable.