Odysseum is rather more than a shopping centre: it presents itself as a shopping and leisure destination, and the claim holds up. The concept is bold and unusual — an open-air, ultra-modern setting built for spending a day with family or friends rather than simply running errands — bringing together close to 140 shops, restaurants and leisure activities in the south-east of Montpellier, twenty minutes from the city centre and served directly by the tram. It opened in 2009 as part of an ambitious development programme for the area, and it has since been recognised with a Mapic Award for best shopping centre.
The retail line-up covers most of what a large centre is expected to hold and a good deal besides: Zara, Mango, Bershka, Stradivarius and Pull & Bear, H&M and Primark, Levi's, Lacoste, Tommy Hilfiger, Boss and Le Temps des Cerises, alongside Apple, Darty, Micromania and Free, Decathlon and Foot Locker and JD Sports, Sephora, Kiko Milano, NYX and Rituals, Pandora, Swarovski, Histoire d'Or and Lovisa, Nature & Découvertes, Legami and Le Petit Souk, an IKEA, a large pharmacy, and the MHSC store for supporters of the local football club. Roughly thirty restaurants and cafés run the full range, from Hippopotamus, Au Bureau, Bistro Régent, Les 3 Brasseurs, Doppio Malto, Brasserie Gusto and Le Sud through Odiki Sushi, Pokawa, Black Corner and Les Jardins de l'Orchidée to Brioche Dorée, Columbus Café, Crêperie Amélie, Crepe Touch, Waffle Factory, Yogurt Factory and Zumo, with the familiar fast-food names — McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Quick, Popeyes — for anyone in a hurry.
What genuinely sets the place apart is the 60,000 m² leisure quarter next door, where a dozen or so activities are gathered in one spot: an ice rink, an aquarium, a Pathé cinema, a free-fall simulator, a trampoline park, bowling, laser game, and games and adventure attractions for younger visitors. It is the rare centre where you can eat, shop, skate, watch a film and jump off something all in the same afternoon — which is precisely the point. Lively, ambitious and entirely at ease with its own excess, Odysseum is where Montpellier goes when a day out needs to be more than a day out.