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.