Strong, Cold Minstral Winds

Wednesday,  Apr. 19, 2017--Montpellier

Wow, we had strong winds this morning.  They occur when a cold front is strong enough to push over the Alps and bring north winds to Provence.  So Minstral winds here are somewhat the equivalent of what we call a Canadian Norther in Texas.  When I went out to explore, it was blowing so hard that fresh tree leaves were swirling around on the ground after having been blown off the trees.  I had on my fleece microfiber pullover, and the wind seemed to just go right through it.  And it was cold--55 F/13 C, but it felt much colder with the effect of that strong wind.  The sun was shining, though, so that helped.  And finding a building to block the wind helped a lot more!

The destination was Antigone, a totally new neighborhood built starting in the 1980s and finished out only in recent years.  It is lined along a "boulevard" that has no auto traffic.  Instead, it has a very wide pedestrian sidewalk and two rows of trees on each side of the walkway.  The buildings were designed to be modern, but with features that suggest the period of the early 1900s.  They have a very grand look. 

The project apparently had three phases with grand archway entrances from one phase to the next.  The first phase seems mature with the buildings having been occupied for years and the trees having grown to a nice height.  The buildings look like apartment buildings, and almost all of them have sidewalk cafes on the ground floors.  There was a farmer's market set up on the edges of the walkway.  The second phase looks complete, but the trees are rather young and it looks as if it has not been occupied for long.  It seems to have mostly office buildings, and there is a beautiful swim hall that looks a bit out of place because of its modern design rather than being retro like the rest of the development.  The third phase seems to be fairly new, but complete with two buildings forming a grand arc facing another tall office building that has lower restaurant buildings on each side.  From the signs, I think the buildings with columns forming the arc house government offices--maybe courts.  The big glass uilding at the end may also be a government structure, since it had multiple flags on top.  In the distance can be seen more modern buildings including a couple under construction right now, but they are out of the bounds of the Antigone development; they are just more growth continuing further eastward.

It's an attractive development.  It has large fountains, copies of ancient statues (including one of Winged Victory), and the look of quality design and construction. 

From there, I walked back through town just exploring narrow streets again.  It's fun how one can walk down a street that is only 12-15 ft (3.5-4.5 meters) wide and pass stores with names such as Hugo Boss, Hermes, etc., then turn an almost dead-end corner and find Brooks Bros. 

I've been having trouble with my phone for the past two days.  It will not stay connected to WiFi.  It connects, then disconnects in 3-4 seconds, then connects again for 3-4 seconds before disconnecting again.  This goes on and on and on.  If it won't connect to WiFi, it isn't useful here in Europe since I do not have cellular service here.  What's frustrating is that it connected fine the first night I was here in Montpellier.  I even made several phone calls to the US with it.  I have tried everything to fix it--clearned the cache, turned the WiFi off and back on, made sure that Bluetooth was off, turned it on in safe mode to see if the same problem occurred which it did (eliminating any chance that it was an app causing the problem), unplugged and restarted the Internet service, etc. 

My only hope now is that maybe the owner of the apartment has an Internet service which throttles usage if there has been too much use within a short period of time.  That first night I watched a film on the computer and I made all those calls.  Last night, I was watching another film on the computer, and it just stopped saying no connection.  I decided to use the phone to make a call to the US, and that's when I realized the problem had developed.  I move to another city tomorrow, so it will be a good chance to see if it is a local Internet problem vs. a phone problem.  If it proves to be a phone problem, then there will be only one possible last resort--to do a factory reboot which would remove everything I have put on the computer since I got it--photos, apps, contact information, accounts for my travel, etc.  I hope I don't have to do that.