Outside the Sanctuary, we saw the little tourist train. We found out it was to leave in five minutes for a 7.5 kilometre tour through the old streets of Lourdes, the uptown area, and its monuments. The complete loop would take about 45 minutes.
What perfect timing! Our feet were rather sore, so this was an opportunity to take a rest and do some more sightseeing at the same time. My new-found friend, who had to leave his wheelchair at the Sanctuary, and who unflinchingly did the Saint Bernadette tour on his cane, welcomed this idea as well.
Unlike pastoral Fatima, Lourdes is a much bigger city with much more modern business establishments. There were stores, restaurants, hotels, inns, banks, and tourist shops everywhere.
But the city is also dotted with non-commercial attractions such as Chateau Fort de Lourdes, the thousand-year old fortress which has never been conquered and provides exceptional views of the city and the Pyrenees; the Botanical Garden and the Pyrenean Museum; the hundred-year old Funiculaire Pic du Jer which would take you to the top at an altitude of 1,000 metres in a few minutes; the Cirque de Gavarnie which are large limestone circles in the heart of the Pyrenees National Park; the astronomy observatory on the Pic du Midi de Bigorre, one of the majestic summits of Haute-Pyrénées; and so many more. At that point, we had to content ourselves with an overview tour since we had more plans at The Sanctuary for that afternoon.
We parted ways when the train tour ended. Some went shopping for souvenirs, some walked back to the hotel to rest, and some returned to the Sanctuary. We thought we heard one of Ms. Lady Ring Leaders' group members mention the casino. Whether it was a joke or not, I was not surprised.
However, a small faction of her group (around six or seven of them), one that we had called, “The Prayer Group,” (for they were indeed doing a real pilgrimage as opposed to the majority of their colleagues who were more interested in shopping and playing card games), invited us to do the "Stations of the Cross" with them that afternoon.
One of my travel amigas, the Maryland teacher, told us she was spending the afternoon in meditation in her room. She was not Catholic but had gone on this pilgrimage for a spiritual experience. The other one, the librarian from Colorado, said she was skipping lunch and would do a long vigil at the Blessed Sacrament chapel. That left me and my fellow Filipina amiga. We committed to joining “The Prayer Group” after lunch. We agreed to meet them at the foot of the path at around two in the afternoon.
We had about two hours left for lunch and a little bit of shopping, so we immediately scouted around for a place to eat. We wanted something quick that served traditional cuisine at a reasonable price. And since we had already identified the shop where we’d like to get our souvenirs from, we decided to dine around the vicinity.
We spotted this restaurant at the ground floor of the Hotel de Paris on rue Sainte-Marie, just a couple of blocks from our store. It was not too busy and their menu, posted with food photos by the entrance, looked promising. They even had a lunch combo.
The restaurant was non-descript. With its simple metal white chairs and tables covered in white and peach floral tablecloths, it looked more like a high-end cafeteria. But by the end of the meal, my amiga and I concluded that one cannot always judge the quality of the food by the décor and ambiance of the place.
We had the most wonderful home-style three-course French lunch for the combo price of 25 euros each. I had the gravlax salmon tartare with fresh Chantilly herbs to start, the southwest duck confit, and crème caramel with freshly brewed coffee. My amiga ordered the grilled vegetable terrine with goat cheese, the chiffonade of Pyrenees trout served with aubergine caviar, the mousse verinne with three chocolates, and a cup of tea. Service was quick and friendly as well, so we were out of there in less than an hour which left us ample time to shop.
At the souvenir store, I got a one-liter plastic container for the Lourdes water and some small water bottles and rose-petal rosaries for my extended family, plus a hand-carved wooden statue of Our Lady of Lourdes with St. Bernadette at her feet for our family altar.
I noticed stacks of playing cards on sale. Playing cards at a religious store! How commercial can one get! The pictures at the back were those from the shrine – the churches, the Grotto, the Baths, the procession at Esplanade, and the rest of the must-see sites within the Sanctuary and within the city of Lourdes. I showed it to my amiga and I naughtily asked her to remind me to mention this to Ms. Lady Ring Leader. This might be the kind of souvenir she’d like to take home after their casino visit at Lourdes. And then I had to tell myself that I was on a pilgrimage and should not be having mischievous thoughts against my neighbours. Oh, the challenge!
Photo Credits:
en.lourdes-infotourisme.com, kayak.com, hotel.info, francetoday.com, francetravelplanner.com
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