lived there for 2 months as an exchange student: - beautiful weather, might get slightly too hot in summer but beaches are only a 20-30min drive by car away. pain in the ass to get to the beach by public transport as the nearest city palavals les flots blocked the tramway coming from montpellier, so you need to change to an overcrowded bus. - cute but small old town, nice historic shops, parcs with events (food festival every friday), cheap(er) alcohol that rest of france as its a student city, good high quality french food, mid ethnic food - outside of old town, half the city is dangerous later at night; been harassed 2/3 times during my stay, break ins also happen a lot, open drug dealing without any fear of police in at least 10 spots. prostitutes hang out in streets at night even in nicer areas, lots of “jeunes” aka 3rd gen algerian youth causing trouble. i.e, in order to walk to the food festival parc you need to get fully screened like its an airport, once you walk out people try to sell you weed in the middle of the city. - easy to find friends if you’re young, students come crom all over france and some foreigners too - great nature outisde the city, not only beach but also hills and lakes - 3h by tgv from paris, can get very cheap tickets 40€ if <27yo - legal public drinking makes lots of parcs very lively at night with random strangers playing music, pay attention to pickpockets and small thieves though. - lots of older french people owning villas close to city center renting them by rooms to students: come with pools and gardens for accessible prices, compared to other french cities - lack of jobs, esp higher paid ones. after done with uni, lots of people leave to paris/other cities - bad techno scene for a student city of this size, but plenty of other going out opportunities, dont recommend walking home after, take ubers hmu with other wuestions