Summary
Second year human geography students going on the field trip to Montpellier in the Languedoc, experience what life is like in a city that has grown like no other in the whole of western Europe in the last 20 years. Montpellier, once a sleepy Mediterranean town with an ancient university and a tradition of viticulture and textiles, is now a vibrant regional capital with architecturally striking new buildings and infrastructure and a remarkable series of high technology parks. Montpellier is the city where most people in France would like to live. The Montpellier field class has been running for many years and, consequently, staff have a wealth of experience and knowledge of the city and its surrounding area.
Field Trip Images
Structure and content
There are some introductory lectures to attend and a worksheet to complete prior to the fieldtrip. During our visit, we cover several themes. For each theme, we spend a day in the field which normally involves some component of project work which is written up in the evening.
Theme I: Urban Planning
The development of Montpellier over the last 30 years shows all the hallmarks of integrated planning. You will contrast examples of modernist residential planning in the 1960s (La Paillade) and postmodern mixed-use planning in the 1990s (Antigone). You will visit some of the new tourist, educational and industrial developments using the new transport infrastructure (the tramway) and you will assess the success of some of these projects.
Theme II: Retailing
Montpellier is the regional centre of retailing. You will be asked to evaluate the importance of the city's retail structure and to consider the opportunities for expansion to Montpellier for a number of selected British companies. You are a retail consultant for the day and must advise on whether your company should switch its capital to the south of France!
Theme III: Coastal development
Tourism has been a major source of income for the Languedoc since the 1960s when a series of tourist units were developed along the coastline as part of central government's urban development plan for Languedoc-Roussillon. Project work on the coast involves understanding what types of service and activity are on offer and what problems are presented when the tourist season is limited in duration.
Theme IV: Water
The supply of water has been of fundamental importance in the Languedoc since Roman times, both in the towns and cities and also in the countryside. Rural modernisation has required irrigation on a massive scale and you will undertake project work to investigate rural land-use change. You will also visit Nimes and the Pont du Gard to see how the Romans dealt with water supply.
Theme V: Rural environment and economy
The natural environment to the north of Montpellier are known as the Garrigues, the foothills of the Cevennes. On this day, you will learn about the natural flaura and how this has been exploited by successive generations, but you will also undertake project work in the vineyards to develop your understanding of wine production as well as consumption.
Theme VI: Marseilles
The biggest city in the south of France is Marseilles and we visit Provence in order to contrast the scale of urban problems and urban development in a major port city with that of Montpellier. High speed motorways allow us to get to Marseilles within 2 hours and to stop on the way to observe the industrial and petro-chemical Europort at Fos-sur-mer.
Theme VII: Montpellier project
This day is akin to doing a dissertation in one day. The idea is to consider a particular topic relating to Montpellier, to plan out how you would investigate the topic, what data you would need and how you would collect the data. You then spend some time gathering your data (primary or secondary, qualitative or quantitative) for writing up as a project when you get back to Leeds.
Learning Outcomes
On completion, students will have:
- obtained a detailed understanding of various aspects of the geography, history and development of Montpellier and its surrounding area;
- developed skills to understand spatial variations in geographical phenomena in a part of the world that is very different to Leeds;
- developed an empirically grounded understanding of how urban and rural development occurs under a different planning and administrative regime than the UK;
- acquired skills in the identification, collection and representation of a variety of information and data sources;
- worked effectively in teams under sometimes challenging field conditions;
- honed an awareness of the possibilities and limitations of cross-cultural research
Course Staff
Prof John Stillwell,
Prof Adrian McDonald,
Prof Graham Clarke,
Dr Louise Waite.
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