Clocking up the Km's

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The last part of our tour is to take in France, and unfortunately, it is a bit farther away than we had hoped. All our long drives seem to be in this tail end - but seeing as we only have 4 nights left, we had best make the most of a bad bus situation J

700 k’s meant reading - and Iz and I were both buried in books to pass the time. It is great seeing him read, as he doesn’t pick up a book at home. Now he has read two more, with a third underway (I talked him into reading Cloudstreet, and he’s loving it?)

We managed to arrive at our final destination, the holy city of Lourdes at 5pm, and I decided to watch some tele, while Iz went for a stroll up a hill nearby the hotel. Thankfully, the World Athletics were on in Osaka, so I could understand what was going on! You don’t get much English here on the tele, unless it’s CNN or SKY news - not much fun!

After dinner, we met outside the hotel, where Jon walked us down to the procession. This takes place at 9pm, and is amazing to watch. There would have easily been 20.000 people in the church area, many holding candles and singing. The ambience was beautiful. We picked a spot on the winding road up to the church, where the people taking part in the candle procession gathered directly below us.

Imagine watching a sea of 5000 candles sweep below you…it is impossible to describe…like so many other things we’ve seen on this trip. A lot of the people who come to Lourdes are here to be healed by its holy water, which stems from a natural spring. The water can be used to wash in, drink, or even to take home with you in a 4 litre container.

Many of the elderly people are in wheelchairs, pulled by the nurses, and we saw kids here with cerebral palsy and cancer…hopefully their trip to Lourdes gives them some hope to keep fighting. It is, on the other hand, sad to watch the money making schemes the local shops use to suck some of the tourists in with. There are thousands of ‘holy’ items for sale - from rosary beads to small figurines, candles and containers. But then there’s also sunglasses, rings, bags and other touristy gimmicks. The shops are definitely not selling the spirit of Lourdes.

With candles in hand, we made our way back to the hotel, for a good night’s sleep. I certainly wouldn’t have chosen to come to Lourdes, but am glad that we did. I don’t know if we’ll ever see anything like the candle procession again.

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Photos

Autogrill
The bus is always stopping at an Autogrill for lunch

Procession 3
People unable to walk.