Let’s get straight to the point. Montpellier hosts 3 quite exceptional exhibitions which alone deserve that you honor the Languedoc city with your presence during a weekend that you will not fail to organize as soon as the time for winter deconfinement has sounded. First, “The New York School Show” at the Pavillon Populaire until January 10, 2021, which presents a rich selection of photos signed by the photographers of the New York School between 1935 and 1965. Second, “Canada and Impressionism” until January 3 at the Fabre Museum, which brings together a hundred masterpieces, most of them never seen in France. Third, still at the Fabre Museum, “Pharmacopees”, on display until January 10, 2021, with works by contemporary artist Jeanne Susplugas. Fans of street photography, Impressionist paintings and radical contemporary art imbued with humor and poetry, you know what you have to do. Prepare for your weekend in Montpellier.
Let’s sleep in Montpellier
Knowing your taste for places steeped in history, and in a constant concern to be pleasant to you, Mr. Bernard has selected for you an 18th century mansion, Baudon de Mauny, a 19th century building, the Mas de La Feuillade, and a house of the 30s, Les 4 Etoiles.
Baudon de Mauny
If leading the high life in the heart of Montpellier is one of your annual goals, no hesitation, book at Baudon de Mauny, a private mansion which owes most of its current appearance, in particular its Louis XVI style facade, to Charles Guillaume Baudon de Mauny, director of the King’s estates in Montpellier, who bought it in 1777. You will undoubtedly find your happiness among the 8 rooms (including 2 suites and 2 junior suites) of this beautiful 18th century aristocratic residence. Woodwork, stone floors, marble fireplaces and double-leaf doors rub shoulders with flashy design and Marimekko poufs in undeniable good taste. Since 2008, Baudon de Mauny has been welcoming travelers who are not without a certain class passing through Montpellier. Moreover, on the bedroom side, if nothing is too good for you and your financial investments are earning you more than expected, opt for the XXL Baudon of 59m2 at € 275 per night. Otherwise, from 155 € the superior double to 205 € the suite, to which you will add the breakfast from 10 to 20 € according to your morning appetite.
Mas de Lafeuillade
Less aristocratic but just as stylish, and surrounded by centuries-old trees, the Mas de La Feuillade is a pretty 19th century building restored by Philippe Bonon, the architect father of the current owner, Max Bonon. Known to Montpellier residents for its restaurant, the mas offers 5 suites, retro atmosphere and vintage design, for the modest sum of 110 € the standard and 160 € the superior, breakfast included.
Les 4 Etoiles
In his 1930s house, Pierre Migayrou reserved the ground floor for himself. After all, it’s his home. But the man in question being of a sociable character, he offers on the upper floor Les 4 étoiles, stylish guest rooms mixing vintage cement tiles and contemporary furniture. From 94 to 105 € per night, breakfast included.
Friday evening’s dinner
You will have to choose between a chic bistro atmosphere for gourmets at Pastis, an author’s table at Leclere, or the wine bar of the daughter of the illustrious Marcel Lapierre, named Les canons.
Pastis
Daniel Lutrand (in the kitchen) and Jean-Philippe Vivant (in the dining room) met when they were working for the Bras family in Laguiole. You can therefore book at Pastis with your eyes closed. Especially since the pretty decor in stone, metal, blond wood and smoked glass and the evening menu at 50 € (to which the more adventurous among you will add 30 € for the food-wine pairing) will delight the aesthetes doubled as gourmets that you are.
Leclere
For 5 years, Guillaume Leclere, trained with Marc Veyrat and Anne Majourel, has been delighting Montpellier residents with a philosophy that is as simple as it is relevant: “a cuisine where you use what you have at hand to best express your creativity, the products, the season, the nature”. Hence the name of the restaurant: “Leclere, Cuisine d’arrivage”. Evening menu at 40 €.
Les Canons
Anne Lapierre, daughter of the famous winemaker who brought Beaujolais to the top of the wine planet, joined forces with Gwenaël Boisrame to open Les Canons. A cellar to eat as you dreamed of it, with mouth-watering plates (tellines and wild garlic pesto, haddock acras, veal kidneys in cream …) and bottles just waiting to be opened.
Saturday in Montpellier
The Pavillon Populaire opens at 10 a.m., so get straight to the point and start your day with a tour of The New York School Show on view until January 10, 2021.
The New York School Show at the Pavillon Populaire
For anyone who is a bit lover of street photography, the exhibition dedicated by the Pavillon Populaire to the New York School is worth the trip to Montpellier in itself. Bruce Davidson, Louis Faurer, Robert Frank, Saul Leiter, Don Donaghy, David Vestal… These photographers have revolutionized their art by boosting the freedom of shooting. They created a new style of street photography made possible by the invention of Leica and Kodak Tri-X and ASA 400 films. Gilles Mora, artistic director of the Pavillon Populaire, and Howard Greenberg, the venerable New York gallerist, have collected more than 150 photographs for what is the first exhibition in Europe entirely dedicated to this movement. Indispensable therefore.
Galerie Chantiers Boite Noire
Continue your artistic morning by going to the Chantiers Boite Noire Gallery. Under the whitewashed medieval vaults of 1 rue de la Carbonnerie, a program whose quality is matched only by its eclecticism.
Metropolitan
Before going to lunch, stop by Metropolitan, a Vive la France decoration store which therefore offers objects from French designers, French publishers and French manufacturers.
Saturday’s lunch
For your lunch, just to stay in the New York atmosphere of your morning exhibition, two healthy canteens for young English-speaking people who love Avocado toast and Eggs Benedict.
Le Hood
Montpellier’s most popular brunch is served at Le Hood. But you can also have lunch there by swallowing a BLT or crunching in an Avocado Toast.
Bonobo
The other most popular brunch in Montpellier is served at Bonobo. Sweet pancakes (Sweet Stack with homemade whipped cream, seasonal fruits & maple syrup), savory pancakes (Savory Stack with fried egg, bourbon butter, bacon & maple syrup), eggs Benedict, buddha burger (vegan) and other bonobowl (large vegan salad)… You will inevitably find your happiness there.
De La Luce
And off you go for your shopping afternoon. De La Luce is what we called in the last century a cutting-edge concept store: decoration, tableware, textiles, fashion, accessories, small series, unique pieces, designer brands and Scandinavian brands… all the required panoply is present under the pretty vaults of the store founded 17 years ago.
Maison Emilienne
Lorène and Vincent Muratel, created their interior design agency in 2008. They also opened Maison Emilienne, a Mediterranean decor shop that also sells groceries. In what remains of their free time, they are also editors, through the production, four times a year and in small series, of household linen, rugs, scented candles, tableware or stationery, which have for common denominator the hand-made and respect for craftsmanship. And since the small business is running well, they expanded and opened Maison Violette.
MOna MArket
Interior designer Elisabeth Verdier opened MOna MArket in December 2012. In an Eiffel-type hangar of 450 m2, she has recreated the rooms of a family home where industrial, vintage, and contemporary objects and furniture are presented together with traditional craftsmanship and custom-made pieces in wood or metal designed by the hostess.
MO.CO.
Then, compulsory passage by the MO.CO. Hôtel des Collections, the main entity of Montpellier Contemporain (MO.CO.). This artistic ecosystem brings together an art school and two exhibition venues: MO.CO. Esba (Montpellier School of Fine Arts), MO.CO. Panacee (Contemporary Art Center) and MO.CO. Hôtel des Collections. This space dedicated to the exhibition of collections from around the world, inaugurated in June 2019 in the former Hôtel Montcalm, is currently presenting “00’s – Cranford Collection”. More than 80 works by 46 international artists provide a panorama of the art of the 2000s. Among the artists on display, John Baldessari, Louise Bourgeois, Ólafur Elíasson, Mona Hatoum, Damien Hirst, Karen Kilimnik, Damian Ortega, Raymond Pettibon , Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jeff Wall… In short, beautiful people.
RBC Design Center
If you still have some energy left, check out RBC Design Center, the Montpellier branch run by Tristan Lohner from Frank Argentin’s little design empire. In the gray “toolbox” designed Jean Nouvel, you will find something to dress up in the very exclusive 609, something to furnish you in the Poliform showroom on the 7th floor, something to cultivate you in the bookstore, in short, something to end well your Saturday afternoon.
Saturday evening’s dinner
Two pocket restaurants, to be reserved (long) in advance, therefore, for your Saturday night dinner. Japanese delights at Mikado, or sunny cuisine at Bojan.
Mikado
Taketomo Luu Sumi left his Parisian restaurant Ito Chan to import the best of Japanese cuisine to Montpellier. At Mikado, you will eat sublime ramen, melting beef tataki, invigorating ginger chive prawns. A delight.
Bojan
Fifteen seats, not one more. You will therefore have to book early to get a table at Bojan, the restaurant of Guillaume Boilève (formerly Flocons de Sel in Megève) and Alix Jean. Especially since between the sober Scandinavian decor and the virtuoso plates of the evening menus at € 28 and € 38, the place’s well-deserved success is undeniable.
Sunday in Montpellier
Peyrou Flea market
If you are allergic to late mornings and if you are an avid bargain hunter, wake up at dawn to find the deal of the century at the Brocante du Peyrou. From 7:30 am, fifty merchants await you on the Place Royale du Peyrou along alleys lined with hundred-year-old plane trees.
Fabre Museum
10 am, opening of the doors of the excellent Fabre Museum, which offers two absolutely exceptional exhibitions. The first, entitled “Canada and Impressionism – New horizons”, on view until January 3, 2021, succeeds in bringing to Montpellier a hundred masterpieces, most of them never seen by French public, signed by these artists who could be called the “Monets of Canada”, Maurice Cullen, William Blair Bruce, James Wilson Morrice, Frances Jones, Laura Muntz, Paul Peel, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté… Arrived in Paris at the end of the 19th century to study with the great masters of the world capital of fine arts, young Canadian artists will be deeply marked by the visual audacity of Impressionist works, capturing all the fleeting atmospheres and the tumult of the modern life. A resolutely innovative style that will radically change their painting, back on their land.
In a totally different genre, the second exhibition, entitled Pharmacopees, establishes a dialogue between a collection of objects from apothecaries, pharmacists, and doctors, and contemporary artist Jeanne Susplugas.
Amid earthenware jars, vipers in formalin, and vintage engravings, the radical, poetic and humorous works by the artist from Montpellier question the role conferred on medicine, both remedy and drug. “My work speaks of disorders, of distortions of reality, built on a thin thread that constantly oscillates between humor and cynicism, irony and tragedy. This disturbing and confusing alternation is a spring that I use in all of my work, which in turn arouses a funny or disturbing feeling”. Essential.
Sunday lunch
Two options when you leave the Fabre Museum: your stomach is crying out for famine, the Café de la Panacee is waiting for you a 5-minute walk away; you can wait 15 minutes, you get in a vehicle towards the Halles du Lez.
Le Café de la Panacée
So after this museum morning, you can keep the momentum and go for a meal at the Café de La Panacee, in the heart of the Contemporary Art Center of the same name, where the large Sunday family brunch buffet awaits you.
Les Halles du Lez
Otherwise, a quarter of an hour’s drive away, the local Food Court is called Les Halles du Lez and you will find everything you can expect from this type of place that grows in every European metropolis like mushrooms in a automnal forest: big names in local gastronomy (Jacques & Laurent Pourcel, Pierre-Olivier Prouhèze, Romain Salamone), emblematic figures such as Gilles Belzons alias Bébelle de Narbonne and the best food providers of Montpellier and its region.
La Maison Pernoise
Since you are there, enter La Maison Pernoise. In love with flea markets as well as Moroccan souks, Lau Dejente settled in an old barn of 250 m2, to offer furniture, lights, crockery and other accessories that she gathers while travelling around the world.
The White Tree
To end your weekend, be sure to go and admire the White Tree. Designed jointly by Sou Fujimoto, Manal Rachdi (founder of the OXO Architectes agency), Nicolas Laisné and Dimitri Roussel, this high-rise apartment building was inaugurated in June 2019. And as in Montpellier, the sun shines more than 300 days a year, each apartment has a balcony of at least 10 m2 (32 m2 for the largest), the development of which required a long phase of experimentation. With its cantilevered spaces over 7.5 meters, the White Tree is a real technological feat. And in addition it is beautiful.
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