The eastern terminus of tramline 1 — about 20 minutes from Place de la Comédie — opens onto Odysseum, a large 2000s development designed to give Montpellier a modern leisure and shopping hub. It's not pretty in any architectural sense, but it works.
The complex includes a big shopping mall, a multiplex cinema, a planetarium (Planétarium Galilée), the Aquarium Mare Nostrum with its Mediterranean and tropical species, an ice rink, a karting track, and a string of mid-range chain restaurants. Useful if you have kids who need a break from the heat of the old town, or if it's raining and the museums are closed.