Lourdes

What a day - this area is so very beautiful, at every turn in the road, it is just lovely. The air is so fresh - the water so clear - but I get ahead of myself. We got up and set the van for travel - to be honest it wasn’t going to be a long journey to Lourdes. Sorted the morning walk with Tom and got the maps out to travel to Lourdes. As we travelled we got to a town and turned into a square - Lestelle-Betherram - it was so lovely, we stopped there for lunch. The hours go so quickly every day, it’s quite astonishing. I was thinking it was around 10.30 and it was 12.15 - shops close at 12.30 ish - so my man gets cracking with the baguette buying and stocked up on drinking water. Amazing how much bottled you get through. Well the square was beautiful, but, as already described, no one there! Except for the little shops and those that man them. I saw some workmen in the square who were gradually replacing the bench seating on the existing metal bases. I also saw an elderly chap in the square taking a breather but that was all. Again, I went into the little church and, believe me, did not expect to see what I encountered. Neither did I expect to encounter the scenes that greeted me when I was sitting there communing with God! As I entered, I noticed the wooden ceilings - usually stone of course. But as I sat on my own admiring the huge gold alter piece - I saw a door was open to the right of the alter - I heard a fair bit of mild muttering in french - then a lady appeared through the doorway, who had obviously not seen me, and she was still muttering away as it became apparent she could not shut the door and, more importantly, could not lock it. Well, it struck me as funny and I was dithering a bit as to whether I should say “Bonjour Madame!” as I didn’t want to frighten her - she had no idea I was there. Anyway eventually she succeeded in her endeavour and as she turned, I realised she had a baguette tucked under her arm, a huge set of keys and a shopping bag in the other. Then she saw me “Bonjour!” she said. Well that was all fine and dandy - then she entered the side alter and it started all over again - she was having a right old go at some kind of cupboard, maybe for the wine and bread, I really don’t know - but I can honestly tell you it sounded like someone was being shot every two minutes. She’d bang the lid, and mutter away and bang the lid again. Anyway, she managed it in the end. Bless her lovely heart - she is obviously a great member of the church community. We ate our lunch in the square and started to continue our journey to Lourdes when we came across the River Gave - AGAIN - it’s a big long river! There we found the most beautifully situated Campsite which said on its website it was open! Guess what, it wasn’t. But not before we had walked down and checked it out. Oh it was perfect and there was a couple of horses and cart setting out on a journey as we arrived. The whole scene was delicious - however, the Gods were against us, so we carried onto Lourdes. Well, dear reader, we are here and we are a 1.8 mile walk from the Grotto and are hoping to get cracking pretty early tomorrow to go and visit the place of Bernadette and our Lady. What a day and I hope you get to see the photographs on Social Media which were posted earlier today. Nighty night