Lourdes

Lourdes
Passing so close, we both wanted to stop off in Lourdes and see what it was all about. Graham’s brother Pat had been right when he said that it was well worth a visit. The 19th century town that built up after local girl Bernadette is said to have seen various apparitions of the Virgin Mary is set in an amazing location on a rushing river amongst the Pyrenees. Through the tat of the icon peddling streets we got to the area of ‘La Grotte’ (where these visions occurred) in time for the 4.30 pm daily procession of pilgrims.
A bizarre but touching sight we watched agog as the hundreds of sick people progressed to the chapel. It seems that each pilgrim is assigned a personal nurse, dressed in a old fashioned red, white and blue uniform to wheel them about the place in ungainly, blue, hooded, wheelchair contraptions. Something to do with the Order of Malta we couldn’t work out whether these nurses were nuns, volunteers or just civilian nurses employed to accompany people on this pilgrimage. Some looked quite holy while others too glamorous in high heels and plenty of make-up to be brides of Christ.
The pilgrims passed in country groups, the largest being Italian then Maltese. There were a considerable number of French, Irish and Austrians, then a spattering of Brits towards the end. We vowed to find one of these and get the low down on how it all worked. Since the opportunity didn’t arise, we will have to do some internet research. Some pilgrims were old, others quite sick. Many looked pained while others seemed made up to be there. We were a shocked to see some fully covered stretchers and guessed that these transported those pilgrims who sadly hadn’t quite made it… Initially a little unsettled by the experience we got quite into things with all the singing and waving. Plenty were cheered by the sight of Krista enjoying the proceedings from the side. One girl was very happy to see the large crowds who had turned out to say hello to her and blew regal kisses from side to side. A couple of young men had brought water pistols to keep them amused.
Waiting to visit the cave where Sainte Bernadette was said to have received her visitations in 1858, we were suddenly being fast-tracked to the front. Not quite sure what was happening we hoped that we hadn’t given the wrong impression with the permanent makeshift sunshade that protects our ‘baby vampire’ from the sun. Happy to avoid the long wait we didn’t protest but thought it polite to remove Krista from behind her screen lest prayers should be wasted on our bonny girl.