Lourdes

Having driven South through France and stayed in the very pretty Dordogne region for a few days, we drove further South to Lourdes. The fact we found it was a mystery to me. The road numbering system in France is very strange, and even the satnav in the campervan was having trouble finding a way as we tried switching back and forwards between fastest or quickest route mode, in order to find a route. The road numbers seem to continuously switch and all seem to have at least 3 different numbers! Anyway we found Lourdes and parked in a nice campsite just a few km outside. Liam gave the campsite 10 out of 10, as the playground had a trampoline, which he jumped on for hours, and a field with horses. Lourdes is interesting. It’s sort of full of every possible sort of pilgrim group, from nuns, school classes and tourists, to barrow loads of very oldies (literally, they wheel old people around in special hand pulled wagons!), all milling around from one religious shrine to another. The main church by the grotto with Mary and the holy water are the main attractions and worthy of the visit. There was a long queue for the bathing in holy water, so we gave that a miss. Instead we crossed the river and sat in the large field on the opposite side and had a picnic. Having ridden into the city with our bikes with Liam in his bike trailer, again it seemed may people have never seen one like it and many stopped to admire it. I think he was blessed a few times by passing nuns, who mistook it for some sort of fancy wheelchair and assumed we were taking him there for a miracle cure or something! Blessed but tired, we rode back to the campsite in the warm evening sun, ready for the next day and the drive over the Pyrenees.

Entering the Sanctuary.

A procession after the Sunday service.

The church built on top of the grotto where the girl Bernadette once had her visions.

In front of the grotto with Mary.

More pilgrims.