Where to Stay in Montpellier, Occitanie

What is Montpellier known for?

Montpellier is known for the University of Montpellier, whose medical school is the oldest in Europe and fills the city with students. The winding lanes of the old centre wrap around the basilica Our Lady of the tables. Youth marks the streets.

The Musée Fabre holds a major fine-art collection, the Languedoc Museum keeps the regional past, and the Tour de la Babotte survives from the medieval walls of the Hérault town.

What are the main landmarks in Montpellier?

Montpellier gathers its landmarks in the old winding centre. The Musée Fabre holds the fine-art collection, and the basilica Our Lady of the tables anchors the medieval heart. Towers still stand.

The Tour de la Babotte and the Tour des Pins survive from the old fortifications, while the church Saint-Roch of Montpellier, the church Sainte-Eulalie of Montpellier and the Languedoc Museum spread the city's heritage across the Hérault town.

What is the history of Montpellier?

Montpellier grew in the Middle Ages as a market and university town in the Languedoc, without the Roman roots of its neighbours. The University of Montpellier rose here, and its medical school became the oldest in Europe, drawing scholars from across the continent. Learning built the city.

The winding lanes of the old centre took shape around the trade routes and the basilica Our Lady of the tables, and towers such as the Tour de la Babotte and the Tour des Pins mark the medieval walls that once ringed the town. As prefecture of the Hérault and a chief city of the Languedoc, Montpellier held both academic and administrative weight through the centuries. The Musée Fabre and the Languedoc Museum gather the art and antiquities of that long history, while churches such as the church Saint-Roch of Montpellier and the church Sainte-Eulalie of Montpellier carry the older faith of the medieval town.

The city kept its student character across each age, and its old winding streets near the Mediterranean still hold the mix of scholarship and trade that first made Montpellier.

Where is Montpellier?

Montpellier lies in southern France near the Mediterranean, in the Hérault department of the Occitanie region. The city stands a short way inland from the coast, on gently rising ground above the coastal plain. Dry hills back the town.

The garrigue scrubland of the Hérault spreads north of Montpellier, and the flat vineyard country runs south toward the Mediterranean shore.

What is the climate of Montpellier?

Montpellier has a Mediterranean climate of hot dry summers and mild wet winters. The sun holds through long summers near the coast, while the cooler months bring the heaviest rain to the Hérault. Frost stays rare here.

Sea air off the Mediterranean tempers the heat of the coastal plain around Montpellier, and the dry summers ripen the vineyards that spread across the Occitanie countryside.

How do you get to Montpellier?

Montpellier sits on the Mediterranean rail corridor of southern France. High-speed trains link the city along the coast toward Marseille and inland toward Paris, and an airport serves the wider Hérault. Trams knit the city together.

From the central station the old town and the Musée Fabre lie within a short walk, and the tram network reaches the modern districts and the edge of the Occitanie coast.