France's Pedestrian Utopia

"The greater good has won the day in Montpellier's historic centre, and there are no crazed drivers to compromise the traveller's drifting reverie.

For a visitor, the virtual absence of cars is paradise — not the sort of thing we could ever accomplish back in the real world, of course, but an unstoppable delight in this bar-filled biosphere where tables crowd into every square, flute solos seep out of the upstairs windows of the pale golden buildings and the sweet sound of conversation reverberates along the quieted winding lanes."