France Revisited asked Jenny Eagle, a British journalist living in Montpellier, to introduce our readers to her adopted city and its surroundings and to suggest several luxury hotels and gastronomic restaurants in that Mediterranean city and region where Provence gives way to Languedoc. Jenny writes:

Tell your American friends that you’re going to the south of France and they’ll likely think you’re headed to Provence and the Côte d’Azur. Immediately, they’ll start telling you about their own experiences in sunny squares, lavender fields, hilltop villages, Aix-en-Provence, Cannes, Nice, Saint-Tropez, Marseille, and all of southern France that lies east of the Rhone River.

Yet southern France isn’t limited to its eastern Mediterranean coast as it edges toward Italy and the Alps. It also follows a western and southwestern arc toward Spain and the Pyrenees. Curve right as you approach the Mediterranean from the north, as the train does, and you’ll soon reach Montpellier, perhaps the least known (to Americans, at least) of France’s ten largest cities. Montpellier weighs in at number seven, with a population of about 320,000, or over 800,000 including the metropolitan area.

Here, just eight miles inland from the Mediterranean, where Provence has given way to Languedoc, lies a dynamic southern city where medieval streets and grand private mansions meet contemporary architecture, a vibrant university scene, noteworthy gastronomy and a robust if lesser-known wine region right on its doorstep. It has many of the ingredients that make destinations to cities in Provence and along the Riviera attractive—history, culture, food, wine, sunshine and the Mediterranean—but it’s a city that feels less defined by tourism.

Nevertheless, tourism is on the upswing, and while Americans naturally lag in numbers behind European and Mediterranean travelers, it may not be too long before one of those friends to whom you mention the south of France tells about his or her first trip here.

Before suggesting several luxury hotels where you might set down your bags to explore Montpellier and its surroundings and offering several suggestions for a gastronomic meal, here’s a brief introduction to the city itself.

The Écusson and other highlights

The historic center of Montpellier is known as the Écusson, meaning heraldic shield, for its shape. It’s the obvious place to begin. Its medieval streets open onto elegant squares and reveal a remarkable collection of private mansions built when Montpellier was a prosperous center of commerce, scholarship and medicine.

The Place de la Comédie, dominated by the 19th-century Opéra Comédie and the fountain of the Three Graces, is the city’s popular meeting place. From there, the streets lead towards the late-17th-century strollway called Promenade du Peyrou, the Arc de Triomphe (1691), and the late-Gothic Saint-Pierre Cathedral.

The Jardin des Plantes, founded in 1593, provides a living reminder of Montpellier’s intellectual heritage. Created for teaching at the city’s medical school, it is one of Europe’s oldest botanical gardens. The medical school itself, which can also be visited and continues to flourish, was founded in 1220!

Yet Montpellier is not a city preserved in amber. Its newer districts have become showcases for contemporary architecture, from Ricardo Bofill’s monumental Antigone to more recent buildings around Port Marianne and the Lez River. This mixture of old and new is one of the city’s defining characteristics.

Montpellier is also distinctly youthful. Its universities and prestigious institutions of higher learning called grandes écoles attract the city a student population of 80,000, which partially explains the proliferation of cafés, wine bars, cultural venues and restaurants. The result is a southern French city with an especially energetic atmosphere.

The Mediterranean is close enough to shape the atmosphere without dominating it. Beaches can be reached within a short distance, while the Étang de Thau, Sète and the vineyards north of the city offer easy excursions. Montpellier, capital of the department or subregion of Hérault, is also a natural base for exploring the Languedoc wine country. (See Beyond Montpellier at the bottom of this article.)

The city’s cultural and sporting calendar is anything but provincial. FISE Montpellier, created in 1997, has grown into one of Europe’s largest urban-sports events. Held in May on the banks of the Lez, the event brings together 2700 amateur and professional athletes and hundreds of thousands of spectators for competitions in BMX, skateboarding, roller, freestyle scooter, parkour, breaking and other disciplines.

In September, the Arabesques Festival provides a completely different expression of Montpellier’s Mediterranean identity. The two-week festival celebrates contemporary creations and heritage of the Arab world through concerts, dance, cinema, literature, visual arts and discussion.

Whatever time of year you might visit, be sure to check out the schedules of Montpellier’s premier stages, the Domaine d’O for theater, dance and more, and the Opéra Comédie for concerts and opera. Also look into the permanent and temporary exhibitions at Musée Fabre, the city’s major art museum. Information of upcoming and seasonal events in the city and its surroundings can also be found on the official site of the Montpellier Tourist Office.

Overall, Montpellier is a dynamic historic Mediterranean city with a contemporary, international cultural identity… and some fine hotels and restaurants.

Choice luxury hotels

Hôtel Richer de Belleval brings together history, art and gastronomy at a single address. It’s difficult to overlook in the hotel- and restaurant-scape of the city.

This Relais & Châteaux member property occupies a restored 17th-century mansion on Place de la Canourgue, one of the prettiest squares in the Écusson. Its restoration combines historic decoration and contemporary art.

The hotel is home to Jardin des Sens, the restaurant of Montpellier’s celebrated Pourcel brothers, Jacques and Laurent. Their original restaurant helped establish the city as a serious gastronomic destination, and the current address continues that connection. Its menu proposes a modern take on Mediterranean cuisine, drawing on the ingredients and flavors of the wider Languedoc. Olive oil, Lucques olives, Pélardon goat cheese, oysters from the Thau lagoon and local wines sit alongside regional specialities such as tielle (a savory octopus tourte), rouille de seiche (a cuttlefish stew) and macaronade (a pasta and tender meat dish).

Domaine de Verchant, another Relais & Châteaux member, provides an alternate interpretation of Montpellier luxury from just beyond the city’s edge. Set among 42 acres of vineyards in Castelnau-le-Lez, this five-star combines a historic estate with contemporary design, restaurants, wine touring and a spa.

For travelers who want the atmosphere of a wine estate without sacrificing access to the city, it is an especially appealing option. The vineyards begin almost at the city gates, so Montpellier’s center is a short ride away.

Domaine de Biar offers a more intimate alternative in Lavérune, also just beyond the city limit but in the opposite direction. This four-star property, where modern comfort meets nature on a historic estate, has just 13 rooms and suites. Its rooms deliberately retain traces of the building’s history, with stone, exposed beams and period details, while introducing contemporary interiors.

Since disconnection is increasingly part of the luxury-travel equation, there are no televisions in the rooms, and the property encourages guests to reconnect with the surrounding landscape. The restaurant, La Table de Biar, provides a gastronomic reason to both disconnect and reconnect over a slow, relaxed, delicious meal.

Back in central Montpellier, four-star Maison Soleil presents yet a different take on contemporary southern hospitality. This 10-room boutique hotel occupies a Mediterranean house near Saint-Roch, with individually designed rooms that retain the character of the original building while introducing a more modern sensibility. There is no conventional reception; the hotel operates through a fully digital, self-service system, although guests have access to 24-hour assistance. It is an interesting example of a new generation of Montpellier hotel, intimate and rooted in the city’s architecture, but decidedly modern in the way it operates.

Further afield, Château & Village Castigno offers perhaps the most unusual stay in the wider Languedoc. In the tiny wine village of Assignan, about an hour west of Montpellier, this “sustainable wine resort,” as it calls itself, is spread across the village itself rather than contained in a single building, with rooms occupying restored houses painted in vivid colors that have made Castigno famous. Created by Belgian couple Marc and Tine Verstraete, the project grew from their passion for the local vineyards into a village-wide hospitality concept encompassing accommodation, restaurants, wine touring and a spa. It’s an eccentric but compelling example of what can happen when a hotel becomes inseparable from its landscape and community.

Select gastronomic restaurants

The Pourcel brothers remain central to Montpellier’s culinary story, but they are far from the only reason to come hungry.

The city has an impressive concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants, including Jardin des Sens, La Réserve Rimbaud, Leclère, Pastis, Reflet d’Obione and Ébullition, each of which carries one star at this writing.

At Reflet d’Obione, chef Laurent Cherchi’s cooking draws strongly on the region, connecting produce from the Cévennes to the Mediterranean.

La Réserve Rimbaud, set beside the Lez River beneath mature plane trees, has become a Montpellier institution. Chef Charles Fontès has retained its Michelin star since 2010 and describes his return to the restaurant as a retour aux sources, a return to his roots. He first came here as a child with his father.

Leclère offers something more unusual. Hidden behind an understated doorway on Rue André-Michel, the restaurant is reached through a narrow, stainless-steel-lined passage before opening into a striking space of stone, granite, tile and vaulted ceilings. The former medical-supply depot was transformed by chef Guillaume Leclère himself, who designed the room around the open kitchen, where he undertakes a deliberately pared-back approach to cooking. His single fixed-price menu changes with the day’s arrivals, with diners given only a list of ingredients rather than a preview of the dishes, part of the element of surprise that has become central to the dining experience here.

Montpellier as destination and base

One of the city’s greatest advantages for travelers is that Montpellier works equally well as a destination and as a base.

Sète, with its canals, fishing traditions and artistic heritage, is an obvious excursion. The Étang de Thau provides a landscape of oyster farms and lagoons that feels very different from the nearby beaches.

North of Montpellier, the vineyards of Pic Saint-Loup offer wine tasting against a backdrop of limestone hills. Further west lie the villages and landscapes of the Terrasses du Larzac. Nîmes, with its extraordinary Roman heritage, is close enough for a day trip by train or car. By car, Montpellier can be the point of departure for or return the lesser-known zone of western Hérault covered in this article on France Revisited or the rugged region of the Cévennes to the north.

As previously mentioned, the region also has a strong connection between wine and tourism—this despite lacking well-known appellations or designations of origin. Montpellier’s metropolitan area has developed its own Vignobles & Découvertes (Vineyards & Discovery) network, with estates near the city offering cellar visits, tastings and other activities.

This combination makes Montpellier particularly well suited to travelers who want more than urban exploration. A visit of several days or more will lead to contrasting experiences: medieval architecture one day, vineyards the next, followed by oysters beside the lagoon, a gastronomic meal, an evening performance, and more.

This is a city with enough history to satisfy the traditional Francophile, enough contemporary architecture and culture to interest the curious traveler, enough gastronomy and wine to justify a serious culinary trip, and enough proximity to the Mediterranean and the Languedoc countryside to make it an effective base for exploring the wider region. Visiting Montpellier offers the chance to discover a corner of southern France that feels established rather than staged, cosmopolitan without losing its regional identity, and increasingly confident about what it has to offer.

The fact that your friends think that you’re referring to Provence and the Riviera when you mention “south of France” could even be part of its appeal.

© 2026 by Jenny Eagle

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* * *

The largest plane tree in France sits like a beloved grandfather in the square in Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, an ancient village in the Hérault Valley, 27 miles west of Montpellier. Children race around its massive trunk and stop to drink from the multiple spouts of the nearby fountain topped by Liberty. Adults sit in its shade to chat. It’s a beautiful, comfortable spot whose history runs deep, but it was not on our itinerary as we originally skirted this part of the valley on our way from Provence to Toulouse.

A chance encounter with a shop keeper in Pézenas, a wine town among the vineyards between Montpellier and Béziers, however, made us change directions and head north into the Hérault Gorges. The shopkeeper’s excitement about the beauty and history of the village convinced me and my husband that a detour would reward us with a memorable stay. She was right, and at the time we did not realize that we would come face to face with sublime architecture, some of which could be found just a short drive from our home in Pennsylvania.

Approached from the south along the Herault River, Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert is heralded by a striking series of bridges, including the medieval Pont du Diable, arched high above a steep gorge lined with grey-white rocks that look as if they had been drizzled down the cliff.

The village itself is surrounded by chalky limestone mountains stippled with green shrubs. Embedded in the hills are the remains of a Visigoth fortress and a dusty old mule path, portions of which have been traveled for centuries by pilgrims following the sign of the shell that marks routes of the Way of Saint James leading to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostella in Spain where the remains of St. James the Greater are said to be buried. Today this path also affords walkers day hikes that begin at the edge of the village on the rue du Bout-du-Monde, the street of the end of the world.

The graceful, rounded apse of the Abbey of Gellone dominates the pale buildings with tiled roofs that emerged as we drove past a gentle flow of the Verdus, a stream that keeps the area verdant as it runs toward the Herault River. We parked the car and walked a narrow street that led to the main square. Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert can be filled with tourists, but as with any well-known site, arriving off-season allows for less hindered signs of the past and of local life.

Those signs were already clear from the hotel room we found, from which we could hear the bells of the abbey, the greetings of residents on the pavement and watch an old dog make his way from the direction of the square toward the welcome of a water bowl.

As we meandered through the cobbled streets of the village we spotted scallop shells embedded in fountains and near doorways as signs of welcome for pilgrims traveling the Way of Saint James. We wondered if these doors opened as readily today to pilgrims as they had in past centuries.

We were charmed by the personalized doors and windows that reflect the artists who reside in the village; we were also struck by a few handmade signs protesting the possession of the original cloister from the Monastery of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. One poster advertised a meeting where a speaker would ask the question “Qui a Vendu Le Cloitre aux Americains?” Who sold the cloister to the Americans?

The Cloisters, in northern Manhattan, is the branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated to the art and architecture of Medieval Europe. It sits majestically atop a hill in a lush 66-acre park with wonderful views of the Hudson River. The impressive monastery-like building is, according to the museum’s website, “not a copy of any specific medieval structure but is rather an ensemble informed by a selection of historical precedents, with a deliberate combination of ecclesiastical and secular spaces arranged in chronological order.” The Cloisters developed out of an impressive collection of cloister sections and other medieval art accumulated by American sculptor George Grey Barnard early in the 20th century. That collection was later acquired and curated at the Fort Tryon site through the donation of land and funding by John D. Rockefeller. Among the highlights of its ecclesiastical spaces is a cloister, one of five, created with 140 fragments from the cloister of the Monastery of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert that, according to the museum, Barnard had discovered being used as “grape arbor supports and ornaments in the garden of a justice of the peace in nearby Aniane.”

The monastery in Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert dates to the 9th century when it was founded by Guilhem, Count of Toulouse and grandson of the Duke of Aquitaine. Guilhem was a cousin of Charlemagne and noted in his time as one of the emperor’s most valorous knights for his battles against the Saracens of Spain. For centuries that followed Troubadours sang about his bravery. Charlemagne presented him with a piece of the Holy Cross (it was an age of relics) that he brought with him when he came to establish a home and a monastery in 804 in the remote region that would eventually bear his name, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert. (“Le Désert” refers not the geography but to the absence of people in the area at the time.) The relic helped make the Abbey of Gellone an important stopping point for pilgrims on the road to Compostella, and it remains there to this day. Despite his life as a warrior, Guilhem was deeply religious and spent his final years at the monastery as a monk from 806 until his death in 812.

Thanks to the traffic of pilgrims, the monastery prospered and most of the Abbey of Gellone visited today dates from the 11th century when it was rebuilt in the Romanesque style. Like many monasteries in France it eventually suffered from the vicissitudes of faith and politics. It was pillaged during the Wars of Religion and vandalized during the French Revolution, losing both furnishings and architectural elements. Each historical trauma, whether natural (e.g. floods) or man-made, led to more decay, and by the 19th century parts of the abbey were dispersed throughout the region, including sections of the cloister later purchased by Barnard.

The interior of the abbey conveys an intimacy and warmth due in part to the variegated rustic tones of the stone. The vault of the soaring apse is punctuated by three high windows that represent the Trinity, and an ornate marble and glass altar presents a stunning contrast with the simplicity of architectural line. Near the altar rests what are said to be the remains of Saint Guilhem and the relic of the Holy Cross given to him by Charlemagne. There are lovely spaces within the abbey, one of which houses an 18th-century organ. The abbey has an atmosphere that suggests mystery and evokes contemplation. It is also a perfect venue for intimate musical performances such as the string and flute ensemble we attended during our visit. The cloister that was rebuilt in the second half of the 20th century, which includes a few original columns, also affords a quiet retreat.

The village of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert appears to flow from the monastery. The narrow streets that begin at the portal of the abbey on the square seem a natural path to the beauty of the tight houses and the chalky tops of the mountains that appear beyond their roofline. An approach to the village offers a lovely view of the rounded apse symmetrically flanked by the round exterior walls of two smaller curved vaults and bordered by a low wall encasing a small garden. The exterior of the monastery, however, does not convey the serenity of the interior. Evidence of the tumultuous past is reflected in the monastery’s outer surfaces in color variation, patched walls, and solid sections that seem almost fortress-like. Still, there is a sense of calm and history as you walk between trees and flowers and enjoy time along a quiet path.

* * *

We drove to The Cloisters Museum in the fall on a radiant day much like the one that welcomed us to Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert. The museum rises from the topmost height of lushly wooded Fort Tryon Park on which it occupies four acres. It conveys medieval perfection through its stone tower, unmarred arches, metal steeple atop a spire such as those found on village churches in the south of France, and the graceful curve of an 11th-century apse from a church in Spain. It may be “an ensemble informed by a selection of historical precedents” but the total effect of The Cloisters is that you have arrived at another time and place. Cobbled paths wind up a hill toward the powerful stone structure, and visitors step into remarkable spaces that belie the 21st century. The statuary, paintings, tapestries and other artifacts humanize the medieval world. Coming so close to medieval art within authentic stone chapels and chambers and gazing into the faces of sublimely painted wooden sculptures makes a connection to ancient life that is transformational.

Four of the cloisters at the museum have outdoor settings with skillfully tended gardens. Everything appears natural and free; the eruption of color and texture suggest a rustic landscape, but the reality is far more calculated. The Cuxa Cloister from a Benedictine Monastery near the Pyrenees in Spain is breathtaking; stone pathways, flowers, trees, and dense foliage frame pink marble columns, a central fountain and low tiled roofs. It is a realization of how we imagine a medieval cloister to have looked and felt.

The reconstructed cloister from the Monastery of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert at The Cloisters is an interior space with a high glass ceiling for natural light and lovely arched windows that overlook the Hudson River behind one side of the cloister. A few potted plants and some large vessels from the period dot the hard pebbled courtyard. The columns are stunning, set in pairs to support the arched stone of the installation. They vary in both the shape of the columns and design of the capitals. Some of the columns are rounded, others hexagonal, still others are ornate with waves from top to bottom, and some are wide and fully sculpted. The capitals are carved with exquisite renderings of acanthus leaves, vines, flowers, honeycombed patterns and both animal and human figures. The passageways behind the columns suggest a sense of contemplation with stone benches for reflection. Care has clearly been taken to respect the extraordinary craftsmanship in the stonework and gracefully echo the serenity of a monastic setting.

I wanted to love this cloister, but I could not. I felt the artifice of museum lighting despite the open ceiling, and I begrudged the closed space that made it more of an exhibit than a setting where imagination might take you back in time. Viewing the columns from multiple perspectives, I tried to place them mentally at the peaceful Monastery of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, among the trees and flowers, the passageways to the abbey, the prayers of monks and the footsteps of approaching pilgrims. I wanted to see them not as individual elements of interest but as an essential part of an idea, a purpose, a commitment to the necessity of contemplation and prayer. Instead, despite the splendor of The Cloisters and my appreciation for how it celebrates the beauty and humanity of medieval life, makes it accessible to so many and preserves it for the future,  I found myself wishing I had attended the lecture that answered the question, “Who sold the cloister to the Americans?”

© 2013, Elizabeth Esris

Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, population 265 (2012 figure), is located in the department of Hérault in the region of Languedoc-Roussillon. The village’s official website, which also provides information about the surrounding Hérault Valley, can be found here.  Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert is a member of the association Les Plus Beaux Villages de France.

The Cloisters Museum and Gardens, Fort Tyron Park, New York, New York 10040. The website for The Cloisters contains a wealth of information. In exploring the site you will discover photos that show Barnard’s collection as it was originally displayed in New York City. Worth accessing are wonderful videos that detail the history and construction of the museum in Fort Tryon as well as detailed videos that focus specifically on the reconstructed cloisters, including further information about the cloister from Saint-Guilhem-Le-Désert.

Elizabeth Esris is a teacher and writer. Her poetry has appeared in Wild River Review, Bucks County Writer, and Women Writers. She wrote the libretto for Elegy For A Prince with composer Sergia Cervetti which premiered in excerpts at New York City Opera’s VOX Opera Showcase in 2007. She and Cervetti also collaborated on a one-act chamber opera, YUM!, a celebration of wine, food, and friendship. She teaches English and creative writing at Central Bucks High School South (Pennsylvania).

Other work by Elizabeth Esris on France Revisited include this article and poem about the Luberon and this article and poem about the Abbey of Senanque.

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