Lourdes

Tuesday 3 September

Lourdes

James dropped us off at the station in plenty of time to catch our train to Lourdes at 8.25am.   I expected the station to be full of priests and nuns, or people who look like they are in need of a miracle, but apart from 2 nuns in white wimples there was hardly anyone there!  The guide books say that millions of people visit every year, so we anticipated large crowds when we got there.

Wikipedia:  "Today Lourdes has a population of around 15,000 but is able to take in some 5,000,000 pilgrims and tourists every season. With about 270 hotels, Lourdes has the second greatest number of hotels per square kilometre in France after Paris"

The train journey was great, lovely comfy seats, plenty of room and we whizzed along  passing through some lovely countryside. I am always on the lookout for the perfect French farmhouse surrounded by colourful fields, but as soon as I spot one and have my camera trained and ready, a tree gets in the way!  

I love the little villages we pass and most of them have a church with a steeple. We saw more cattle this time, but only small numbers, nothing like the herds we are used to.  About an hour into our trip we began to see the Pyrenees in the distance.  We hadn't seen mountains like this since Switzerland, they looked so good. 

We arrived in Lourdes at about 10.20. It's quite a big station and we found somewhere to have a coffee and get our bearings.

It is very like an Alpine village, hilly streets, narrow footpaths and roads.

 

 We wandered up the main street, over a bridge, and found the information centre.  They gave us a map and suggested  we took the route following the footsteps of Saint Bernadette.  The information centre was in a large modern square with a statue of the 'fallen' and naming the wars and conflicts which had taken them.  

Then we followed the signposts to the Grotto.  This was quite easy as the majority of visitors were heading the same way.  We went downhill past many shops selling the same sort of religious souvenirs, so many shapes and sizes of St Bernadette, the Virgin Mary, Jesus on the cross, etc,

 

etc.  there were also little bottles which were for collecting the holy water from the Grotto (I originally mistook them for salt and pepper sets!),  of every length and variety,  pictures from the bible, and occasionally an ice cream shop or sweets, cafes and restaurants, but most of all the Hotels, one on every corner.

We arrived at the sanctuary which was a big open space with statues and flowers and we followed the wall round to the Basilica.

 

 What a beautiful entrance, the mosaics on each side glittered in the sun

we walked up the curved steps to the open doors to the church, it was packed with worshippers, there was a mass going on, so we sat down at the back for a while to take it all in.  The ambience felt good, peaceful, cool and calm, it was a hot 30 deg outside.

 

We went out and climbed up more steps to the golden crown, which happened to be the top of the interior dome, the windows at the base were open to allow the air to circulate inside the church.

 

The entrance to the Shrine to St Bernadette was up a few more steps, and many people were quietly walking up the centre aisle and saying a few prayers, very quiet and respectful of others,  it was a lovely place to be and the sun came through the stained glass windows filtering the light.

 

 We moved on through and went down the steps, looking down over the side of the steps we could see another big open area with seating and the river running behind.  This was the area of the Grotto.  

There were masses of people there, most of the seating was taken up, no one was really saying anything, just looking up at the statue of St Bernadette which was inside a small cave in the wall,

 

and watching the queues of people lining up to walk up to the actual place where the apparitions took place.

Wikipedia: "the grotto at Massabielle where St Bernadette's visions took place is very simple and stark. The recess of the grotto itself is undecorated, although a plain stone altar and lectern have been placed there so that Mass can be said. Above the main recess is the niche where the apparitions took place and Fabisch's statue now stands. A large stand of candles next to the altar is kept burning during the season.

The spring Bernadette is said to have dug can be seen at the rear of the grotto, shielded by a glass cover. Pilgrims can process through the grotto and it is traditional to touch the rocks directly under the statue; indeed so many people have done this that the stones have become polished. Also at the rear of the grotto is a metal box into which written prayers or petitions may be deposited; they are collected daily and burnt.

Rows of benches allow visitors to sit and pray or contemplate. Pilgrims are asked to remain silent while in the vicinity to create an atmosphere of devotion. One of the spots where Bernadette prayed to the Virgin is marked by a special paving slab.

Some of the rock walls around the grotto bear clear signs of deliberate alteration, presumably to improve access for pilgrims. It is no longer clear what the original configuration of the grotto was."

We saw many pilgrims (hard to tell from tourists like us) of all ages, many were transported in special 3 wheeler wheelchairs and pulled along by two people while being pushed by a third, it is, after all, either uphill to leave or downhill to enter the sanctuary.  We saw a woman in sack cloth kneeling and praying and saying her rosary, I wondered how long her pilgrimage had taken her.

Wikipedia:  "Following the reports that Our Lady of Lourdes had appeared to Bernadette Soubirous on a total of eighteen occasions, Lourdes has developed into a major place of Roman Catholic pilgrimage and of miraculous healings. The 150th Jubilee of the first apparition took place on 11 February 2008 with an outdoor mass attended by approximately 45,000 pilgrims.

Yearly from March to October the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is a place of mass pilgrimage from Europe and other parts of the world. The spring water from the grotto is believed by some to possess healing properties."

So in a more reflective mood we decided to go back up the hill and have some lunch and plan our afternoon.  It was so hot that we wanted to be inside rather than sit outside in the busy footpath.  It took a while because we wanted a 'long lunch' not burgers and chips (the English were everywhere) and we found one that looked empty, but on entering we were ushered to the back of the restaurant overlooking the canal, beautifully shaded with red umbrellas and a purple awning, but still in the open air - perfect!  We had a lovely lunch of warm duck salad, followed by crumbed turkey breast, ratatouille and confit of parsnips - not just any old parsnips, these had been steeped/cooked at low temperature in olive oil and dressed with fennel and parsley with a touch of lemon.  I will be more interested in cooking parsnips from now on!

We decided to take the 'petit train' around the city, especially up to the castle which was quite a walk.  We also paid a bit extra for a museum visit.  It only took 10 mins to reach the bottom of the castle, and we then ironically, got into a modern lift which took us to the top of this 13th century building! It is called "Chateau Fort", a never defeated  fortress, once at the top there are the most wonderful views of the city and the Pyrenees,

 

it has lovely botanical gardens with models of Pyrenean houses and a castle all at 1/10th scale.  

Throughout the fortress are many rooms and these have been so well laid out with artefacts and models of the years gone by, that we were there longer than intended, it was kept clean and well maintained by many people who were unobtrusively either brushing the floors or just keeping an eye on things as visitors went through.

 

 So down the lift again to the 2014th century and onto the next 'petit train' experience.  We had been recommended to see the wax works museum depicting the life of St Bernadette, so we got off at the next stop,

only to discover that this was not the wax works museum but rather yet another walk through history, along with our trusty headphones and taped commentary.  Unfortunately at no 8 the carpenters, our headphones gave up and try though we might to press all the buttons, we couldn't get the English commentary back again, so walking a bit further through the maze and bumping into two nuns a couple of times, we decided we had had enough of number 8 and went back to give the headphones back,

 

but there was one more treat in store, the assistant insisted we finish in the room from which the other people exit, so we were bundled through some double doors marked exit and were given a quick blast of "Ave Maria" and flashing lights lit up the Virgin Mary, Jesus, Angels, et al!!  Then we were allowed to 'exit' with due decorum and with a 'merci Monsieur au revoir' we scurried off to find our next 'petit train'.

We couldn't find one - no patience - so we followed another set of nuns who we knew would lead us out of trouble, and walked back to the city square again.  It was getting near to our train time anyway so we had a nice sit down and a glass of cold beer while we waited for the train due to leave at 4.35pm.  We bought a couple of jambon et fromage baguettes as we knew the journey took about 2 hours to get back to Toulouse and then another 25 mins on the Metro to Basso Combo where James would pick us up, and having had a large lunch a baguette would be all we needed for dinner.

Same lovely train back, we settled in for a nice ride back to Toulouse, took a couple more photos of trees whizzing by, and then to spoil our joy we started to slow down and stop at a station in the wilds of the countryside.  The apology came in French from the Guard, we looked at people's faces, but no clue there, so we waited patiently.  Then some people got off to have a smoke, then another French announcement from the guard, still no clue.  Younger people got off the train, it was almost like they were having a party, c'mon I thought French were supposed to be fiery, why wasn't someone causing a fuss about being late, but when they weren't having a good time they were on their cellphones.  

Then the next train from Lourdes pulled up on the other side of the platform and waited, the Guard from that train had an animated conversation with our Guard, and it was decided that all the passengers from that train should join us on our train!  At least we enjoyed our baguettes and after an hour and a half we slowly moved off.  Gathering speed quickly it was at least 10 mins before we slowed down and stopped again!  Groan, another 15 mins!  So we texted James, change of plan, and he picked us up from the Toulouse station about 9.00pm.  Big sigh!

So what did I think of Lourdes?  It felt good to be there, there's something about Lourdes, and I think it is about the respect each person has for the other, no one knows why others have come, it's not clear who the 'real' pilgrims are, who has spent years saving up to come here, and who has been given a new lease of life after visiting.  But in spite of the crass souvenir shops lining all the streets, and the obvious tourist add-ons, like the petit train and various wax work museums and museums depicting the early days, it feels very special.