Built in 1908

I started to get to know Montpellier about thirty years ago. At the time I was managing the business affairs of the photographer David Hamilton who during the summer months had started using the beaches at Cap d'Agde as his open air studio. Montpellier was where you had to change trains, coming down from Paris.

So I began to make a habit of overnighting in Montpellier on the way to and from Cap d'Agde in order to discover peu à peu the city which has now become my absolute favourite, where I hope one day to spend much, much longer.

I think the trigger which convinced me that this is where I belonged was the small but splendid building shown below.



As a filmmaker (well, audiovisual storyteller) I find that having a hundred-year-old cinema close by is a nice affirmation of my chosen profession. That long ago there must have been people as passionately committed to the moving image as I remain today.

Umm... second from the left below, me, back in the day when Montpellier was new to me. I was also an unpaid extra in (as well as some kind of assistant associate producer of) David Hamilton's fim Bilitis! The beach, however, is not that at Cap d'Agde but at Pampelonne, not far from the beach restaurant where David preferred (and I am told still does to this day) to lunch.