ISSOUDUN, BOURGES & NEVER

Dear all,
This blog involves the challenge of using a French keyboard and clicking on French directions on the screen! It may be mercifully short!
It was pouring rain when I left London - having risen at 4.30 am to greet an ordered taxi. It only took half an hour to the airport because it was a 'Bank' Holiday for something no one could tell me. So I had stacks of time. The plane delayed half an hour while the luggage of 5 missing passengers was removed, but we arrived in Paris only 5 minutes behind schedule. The travel agent had arranged a 'transfer' for me and sent me a ticket but I had no idea of what I was looking for and spent an hour practising French on many people and trawling my preposterously heavy luggage up and down the footpath until, after an inquiry inside, the girl at the desk referred me to a gentleman who was looking for 'someone'. That was me - identified by the notice he was carrying: "Mr or Mrs Clancy". I was at the Station half an hour later in plenty of time for the 12.50 pm train. I bought food on the train and arrived at Issoudun about 2.40 pm to be met by Sr Gerardine. Here are a couple of pics of the place:1)You can see the Basilica of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at the end of this street.
2) Gerardine is beside a small museum I saw the next day - you can see it is not exactly warm 3) The Basilica is one one side of a beautiful enclosed courtyard (the photo shows a corner of it). The building I am in (the 'Cor Novum' building) is where I am standing to take this picture. There is a building for pilgrims (135 Confirmation children with teachers there just now) and the building which fronts the street is lower (1 or 2 stories, rather than having four as the other accomodation areas do) and contains a book & souvenir shop plus offices: 1) There are some beautiful stained glass windows in the Cathedrals here: the first is one of many like it in the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Basilica - they have been put in quite recently by some local artist and his companion craftsman.
2) The second photo is one of the very large and beautiful famous windows in Bourges Cathedral - where Fr Chevalier spent his Seminary days. You can see the wonderful colours and the detailed Gospel stories. This Cathedral dates from 1295 when few people could read:
3) Myself; Gerardine and Linda (Irish American) - it still hasn't warmed up!

There are very old buildings in France. A lot of places are Heritage and the streets could only be changed with great difficultiy. This morning, Fr Hans msc walked me around the town and pointed out places of significance to the history of Fr Chevalier, who started both the MSCs and the OLSHs here. The French Revolution occurred while he was Parish Priest here and all religious houses were seized and communities disbanded. He was only able to stay as Parish Priest, andn at 81 years of age was eventually evicted by force from his Presbytery. He died within a year in the nearby house of a friend.

1) This note written by Fr Chevalier, came from the butcher to whom it had been given by its poverty-stricken holder in order to obtain 500 Grammes of meat on Fr.Chevalier's account. 2) This is the house where, on 21st October 1907, Fr Chevalier died (behind the upstairs left two closed shutters) in the house of the friend who had taken him in. 3) Looks like a Shakespearian house, doesn't it? This style is fairly common in the old areas - also in Bourges.

I'm off to Nevers by train early in the morning to see St Bernadette's incorrupt body etc. Have to change trains twice. Wish me luck. So I'll just add a few more pictures with commentary before I close.

1) Issoudun has a castle - the White castle - so named because the Queen (Blanche) used to come and live there. It became a jail for prisoners of war during the First World War. The town used to be walled and this tunnel was the entrance to the town. 2) The next picture shows the continuation of the wall which occupied a high point over the local stream and was a very good defence during the frequent sorties with the deadly invaders of the time - the English! 3) On the right of this old street is the Parish Church of St Cyr - where Fr Chevalier was PP. We couldn't get in because it is being extensively restored. Since the Churches were seized during the Revolution, the local Government owns them and is responsible for their upkeep - the outside anyway. That must the preserve the sanity of many French priests! 1) A very nice view of the rear section of Bourges Cathedral - I could not get far enough away to take a whole view and the front had scaffolding up for much-needed repairs.
2) Bourges has the remains of a Roman wall which used to surround the city centre - see the diagram.

3) Here I am in an area where we followed the Roman wall for quite a distance behind houses.

1) Can you see the cobblestones? Very hard on the feet! This street has the notice in photo two just on the left of that lady.

2) This photo is clear. George Sands (women had to use male names to have their books accepted!) was a famous man's mistress, I am told.

(3) A little shopping area in the Old Town section of Bourges. We had a 'tres delicieux' meal there on Wednesday evening before returning to Lourdes: Bye for this week. I could tell you thousands more things but I would not get to bed. God bless! Rita

NEVER

I am adding this section much later because I found I had not written up this day trip to see the incorrupt body of St Bernadette. I took three trains to get from Issoudun to Never, but it only took about an hour and a half. The seats were comfortable, there were quaint little stations along the way and the scenery was lovely French rural scenery. I sat back and enjoyed the trip. At Never Station, following instructions from someone, I bought a map of the town, but did not use it much. I walked through the main street and turned up a road with a likely-looking sign on it. Soon I came to a house where Joan of Arc had spent some of her life.

(1) These were seats on the train to never and a rather uninspiring view outside the window at the Station.

(2) A quaint little station along the final leg of the journey.

(3) St Joan of Arc once lived here - enlarge the picture and you can read the sign.

After losing courage and repeating some sections, I came finally to the Convent where St Bernadette had lived. I headed inside to an information section outside a small museum and in my best Anglo-French lingo managed to get some information. Then I headed for the Chapel where the body of St Bernadette was, exactly like it is in pictures I have seen. She looked as though she was sleeping. No photos were allowed so you will just have to imagine it.

(1) The Convent where St Bernadette lived her adult life.(2) The Chapel where her incorrupt body is on display in a glass case. (3) An image of St Bernadette as a young shepherdess, in the grounds of the Convent. I walked through the large garden in the Convent grounds to the small Chapel where Bernadette was originally buried, prior to being exhumed many years later and found to be incorrupt. Also in the grounds is a statue which Bernadette said she like the best because it was most like the Lady that she saw: Our Lady of the Smile.

(1) Here is the little Chapel where Bernadette was originally laid to rest. (2) Inside the Chapel you can see the original tomb. (3) Our Lady of the Smile in the grotto in the garden.

I spent some time looking around Never and met a man who was on a Pilgrimage to the Shrine of St James in Spain. He was happy for me to photograph him with his pack showing the shell which signifies this pilgrimage. There were lovely rose gardens nearby. Eventually I inspected the Cathedral, which was on a fairly confined site and undergoing renovations (all the Cathedrals I saw seemed to be undergoing renovations!) but was still quite remarkable. It had the most wonderful gargoyles all over it!

(1) My St James Pilgrimage friend having a rest (2) A Rose garden nearby. (3) This gives you a little idea of Never Cathedral. I'll show a couple more pictures of the Cathedral with detail.

(1) A view of the interior of the cathedral (2) A view up the tower giving some idea of the great number of gargoyles poking out from every ledge. Of course the idea was to ward off unfriendly spirits with the uglies faces possible. (3) A typical view of French countryside from the train window on the way home. Very tranquil.

Lourdes + a few Side Trips

Dear All,
I did this blog (well, a large slice of it) last night, then lost the lot!!!!! Here we go again. At the bottom of this page, Blogspot keeps telling me that it is autosaving my blog, but ...... one fatal error, and it was all gone. I went to bed!
The trip to Lourdes went off without a hitch (as long as you don't count missing the first bus in London to go to Stansted airport because 4 of us waited in vain at the wrong bus stop. How were we to know - 2 Germans, 1 ? and an Aussie - that there were bus stops inside the Bus Station when there were lines of marked bus stops in the street???? The pitfalls of the tourist!) The flight was mostly smooth, and we arrived on time, well fed and ready to go. Another bus took us the 20 minute drive through pretty green countryside to Lourdes where we were deposited at various hotels, mine being the Beau Site (say 'bow-seat'!). Everyone on the trip so far spoke English, so no problems yet. There were only 8 from our particular Tangney Tour at the Beau Site and we had meals together, but apart from that didn't see each other much unless we went to one of the group Masses.

My extensive French vocabulary came out in force once we set foot in Lourdes: 'Bonjour; s'il vous plait, merci, oui oui!; pardonne moi; excuse moi' - really tricky stuff! The most difficult encounter was with 7 small shopkeepers, in seven different shops, as I tried to track down a sewing kit (or at least a needle and some thread) to fix a button which had dropped off my coat at the airport. At shop 3 an obliging 'dame' wrote down 'aguille' and 'coudre' for me, but that didn't solve the mystery for the next 2 proprietors. I did much miming of sewing on a button! To no avail. But at the 7th shop, having finally got the attention of an elderly couple sitting there minding their own business (that is a pun, but they were literally taking no notice of anyone in the shop!)the light dawned in the lady's eyes and she pointed me to a shop on the opposite corner where at last I bought a 'Kit'! with little scissors, needles and a card with several colours of thread - everything except the colour I wanted. One beige coat button is now attached with white thread. Several days later I came across exactly what I had been looking for in a little shop near the Grotto. Now for a few photos:

1) Pretty rural scene on the way from the airport. 2) The Beau Site Hotel is the skinny pink one with high green balconies in between two others. In front of it, behind the trees, but not visible in this photo, is the swift-flowing Gave River.
3) In this photo you can see the Gave River and, across the other side, some more of the many, many hotels.

Well, we headed for the Grotto area once we were unpacked safely (at least a few of us did - it had been a long day!) for 6.15 pm Mass with the accompanying priest, Fr Henry (from somewhere in Hertfordshire), in St Michael's Chapel which is around the left side of the Basilica in the picture below. Here are a few pics.

1) Not very good photographic weather, but you can see the typical Lourdes view of the Basilica.
2) This photo gives you a 'sniff' of the numerous venues on the other side of the Gave River to the 'Grotte' area at Lourdes. 'Salle' is 'room' - many groups use them for activities.
3) A view of the actual Grotto are showing i. the (continuous) lines of pilgrims filing through to touch the rock and look more closely at the apparition scene; ii. the candle 'stack' which burns continuously - I think people donate candles for this; iii. the statue in the niche where Bernadette saw the vision of Mary; and iv. a pilgrim (she is in brown, holding a long candle) almost obscured by the rear view of a wheelchair-bound person waiting to go up to the line. The 'brown-clad' person is standing on a bronze plaque which marks the spot where Bernadette knelt for the apparations.

I did everything a pilgrim does in Lourdes at least once: went to Masses in St Michael's, St Joseph's, the underground Basilica, St Patrick's and the Chapel of the Poor Clare Convent (those are in order for each day). I went twice to the 9 pm Candlelight Procession and once to the 5 pm Blessed Sacrament Procession with the Blessing of the Sick. I followed the routes of both the High and the Low Stations of the Cross, and visited the 'Grotte' many times. Here is a selection of photos:

1) Myself ready to join an evening Procession, complete with candle.
2) A specially-chosen group carried the statue of Mary at the head of the procession.
3) My surprise Australian companion for the evening Procession on Tuesday - Delwyn, who visits Rochedale and stays with her best friend, Judith, there. She is holding my candle so I can take the photo as we walked along.
1) On Thursday night Fr Henry caught up with me and held the candle of a fellow-pilgrim while he photographed us. You might be able to work out if you look at the first photo on this blog, that we go right down the road in front of the Basilica then turn back at the end of the central grassed area.
2) In the vast underground Basilica (holds 5000?) for the Blessing of the Sick and Benediction following the Blessed Sacrament Procession.
3) This is the group of priests etc leading the Blessed Sacrament Procession outside the Church of St Bernadette, which is relatively new on the site.
1) The sick, especially those in wheel chairs, are the 'royalty' of Lourdes. Here come a group of them - notice each of the chairs is pulled from the front by a volunteer. The sick are given first place everywhere, and taken to the front.
2) 'Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem' - a typical 'High' Station. You climb 1000 ft while following this route.
3) There is an increasingly good view of Lourdes township from the High Stations.

Although there wasn't much talk of miracles amongst the pilgrims at Lourdes, 'Jim', who was part of my meal group at table, came to Lourdes some years ago needing to have an operation , but upon returning and seeing the Doctor, found the problem had entirely disappeared and he did not need the operation!

1) These five Swiss with their Alpine Horns were a treat and people (including moi - note how naturally the French comes to me now!) flocked to them whenever they played their beautiful pieces. Very harmonic and a wonderful tone and resonance. There are no stops on the horns. All the pitch, tone etc is achieved with lips and air. 2) 'Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem' on the Low Stations. These were on flat ground not far from the grotto, done in marble bas relief.
3) With my poor little camera, and stuck in the middle of many thousands of people, I tried to get a picture of the crowd assembled in the 'plaza' before the Basilica at the end of the Candlelight Procession. Use lots of imagination!

GAVARNIE

This was an optional Wednesday afternoon trip to the closest town to Spain in the Pyrenees. It was about 60 miles driving in a bus along a winding road, which is part of the route of the Tour de France. The scenery was spectacular, with gorges and mountains. The higher peaks had snow and the weather was a bit cloudy, but we still had lovely views. We passed through picturesque towns and eventually came to our destination and were given and hour and a half to look around. I set off for the Cirque - a glacial gouge-out of a section of the mountains. It contains the highest waterfall in Europe 400+ feet, plus several lesser waterfalls. I took some lovely photos, but will just give you a small selection here:

1) Picturesque town with mountain backdrop.2) On the walk to the cirque view
3) My best view of the cirque with the high waterfall to the left. The valley between my position and the circue is very pretty too.

PIC DE JER
On Thursday afternoon I caught a bus to the 'Finiculaire' (a funny little metal electric enclosed tram) which runs up a steep line, through two tunnels, to near the peak of the mountain which overlooks Lourdes. Then I walked to the Summit. Although the weather was stormy and it rained, I still got some good views.
1) From my 'front seat' as I went backwards up the mountain, there was a view like this. You can see the town below!2) As we prepared to go down, I took this photo inside the finiculaire. See the hand? Can you get some idea of the tilt! Not for the faint-hearted!
3) From the summit there was some pretty views on the other side of the mountain.


LOURDES - THE TOWN
I can't resist including a couple of pics of the town - very different from anything back home.

These photos are all of side streets. There is a more modern part of town, but much is like this. Buses negotiate these streets!!! The middle photo shows the birthplace and early childhood residence of Bernadette. I will finish here (from exhaustion - mine, if not yours!) If you want to see a few photos of yesterday's very enjoyable outing to Greenwich and the Thames with Colin, look on his blogspot: www.clancycolin.blogspot
When I have some time and some more energy, I will do another blog for yesterday! Meanwhile, I am off to France at 4.30 am in the morning (taxi) for a 7.25 am flight from Heathrow. Maybe I'll have internet access in France, maybe I won't (imagine my Gallic gesture here!) Time will tell. It will all come to an end quite soon, which will be just as well because I could not keep up this hectic lifestyle for ever! All the best. God bless for this week from Rita.