Making a Pilgrimage to Lourdes, France

A pilgrimage to Lourdes, France – a major Catholic pilgrimage destination –  was a one-of-a-kind of experience for me.  It was that for two very good reasons:

1. It is the site where the Virgin Mary appeared to young Bernadette, a country girl with no education but a lot of faith. (Watch the 1943 classic “The Song of Bernadette“!)
2. My mother and sister are both named after that site, where the “Virgin of Lourdes” appeared to Bernadette.

I suspect both my mom and sister have always wondered if they would ever go to that town in the foothills of the French Pyrenees.  Wouldn’t you want to go to the town where your name came from or is related to?  In their case, maybe more than just for the curiosity of being namesakes with the town but, also, on account of what happened there in the mid 19th century.

The apparition in the grotto of Lourdes

While the apparition happened multiple times and the local clergy had initially been skeptical, over time they became convinced of the validity of what Bernadette shared.  I will leave to other sources to explain the whole story.  But, the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette on a grotto near the river on a few occasions and delivered messages.  Out of these events, water sprung from the site.  The waters of Lourdes are, to believers, holy waters.

Eventually, the site became developed with a church, evolving over the decades to the place it is today.  People from all over the world come to this special site seeking healing or just a spiritual encounter.  Many drink the holy waters from the spring.  Some bottle it to take home (there are fountains at a few locations – they are easy to find).  Some even immerse themselves in special pools set up near the grotto.  My Mom, sister and I did it (more on this further down this post).

Getting to Lourdes

One can fly close to Lourdes, France but mainly from Paris (if you are on a charter group, you can fly in pretty close to Lourdes, I understand).  Driving to Lourdes from cities like Bordeaux, France, or Bilbao or San Sebastian, Spain is not that hard a road trip (a little over two hours from San Sebastian, longer from the others).  Barcelona would be more of a haul but doable in a long one-day drive.  We planned our trip so we would coming from San Sebastian via Biarritz and Bayonne.

When we arrived in Lourdes, I was expecting the streets to be super narrow and crowded.  And me driving this larger vehicle…  The outskirts of the town were easy enough.  But as we moved closer to the “epicenter” of the pilgrimage area, the town was getting “older” and, therefore, you could tell it was about to become tight.  And me with the big car…

Fortunately, we entered the center of the town quite near to our hotel (unplanned!).  Thanks to the GPS, I knew I was near the hotel, the Grand Hotel Gallia & Londres when, all of a sudden, I saw a parking sign for it, not where the GPS was indicating I needed to go.  Miraculously (pardon the pun), I caught a passing glimpse of the sign before I would have hit the heart of the crowded part of town!

Lodging in Lourdes

Well, there are PLENTY of places to stay in Lourdes.  You will not be short on options.  My strategy was to be very close to the sites we were going to visit as I did not want to have to deal with moving the car, finding parking spots, etc. and I wanted to be able to get to and from the hotel quickly for my travel partners’ benefit.  There are a LOT of pedestrians so driving is actually a tad stressful.  People are distracted by all the shops, large groups move with a ‘force of presence’ of their own, and they are all excitedly talking with each other.

So, I kept my driving in Lourdes to driving in, and driving out.  Plus, again, I wanted to be really close to the Sanctuary of Lourdes, where most of the religious activities of interest take place.  That would make it easier to go back and forth between the hotel and the Sanctuary should someone want a break between activities, or the like.  That was a great approach for my little group (consisting of my Mom, her brother, my sister and I – two pairs of siblings; my sister thought it was cute).

Anyway, back to lodging… As I said the hotel was practically as close as you could get to the Sanctuary.  The hotel was in the old style of a grand hotel in the inside (architecture and decor).  It was nice enough to be sure but, unfortunately, the air conditioning was not working on our floor.  Hard to tell with French hotels whether they are just being stingy by saving on the power bill or whether it was true. 

Certainly, at night the air cooled enough to be comfortable in the room so I could see them thinking “why turn the air conditioning on, spoiled tourists?”.  And how would the guest know it was not “broken” week in and week out anyway?  Ah… France…

But, let me tell you, the noise from the street did not subside until the very wee hours of the morning – not the faithful partying, I am sure.  And I wear ear plugs.  So that made the hotel not perfect since the night’s sleep was not as good.  But other than that, it did the job nicely enough and the staff was friendly.

Starting our pilgrimage to Lourdes at the Sanctuary

We had dinner before heading in the early evening to the Sanctuary, the site with the grotto and several churches/basilicas, almost across the street from the hotel.  We knew there would be a torchlight procession at 9PM where the Holy Rosary is recited.  Sadly, we did not quite know the ‘mechanics’ of it.  So, we sat on a bench to wait.  What we missed was that we were supposed to walk towards the grotto and join the procession line.

Nevertheless, we witnessed the procession which brought a statue of the Virgin to the front steps of the Rosary Basilica (the lower one; the upper one that one sees more evidently is the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, or the Upper Basilica).  In the meantime, we did walk to the grotto for our first visit to the spot where the apparition took place.  The line was very short and it was always moving.  So, it did not take long before we got to visit and say our prayers and intentions…

The next day, we had found out at the information center (located by one of the entrances to the complex) that there would be a Spanish Mass at 11 AM down the Esplanade at St. Joseph’s Chapel.  After attending that Mass we went into the underground Basilica of St. Pius X, a massive modern space completed in 1958 (it can hold 25,000 folk!).  I am not sure it is the type of church I feel most spiritual in but I suppose there is a need for it in this site?

The piscines for immersion in Lourdes’ holy waters

We finished our exploring by visiting the Rosary Basilica and the Upper Basilica.  After, we went to the baths (or piscines) where one can immerse him- or herself in the holy spring waters.  First, one waits in an outdoor area with plenty of seats.  Eventually, one gets called in to a vestibule awaiting the assignment of to one of the pools.  From the vestibule, one gets called in to a smaller room behind a set of curtains.  Once in the smaller room, one will undress and be wrapped as preparation to walking into the pool.  

The water was absolutely frigid so the miracle may be that I was able to walk out of the pool and that my legs regained normal body temperature!

All joking aside, the piscines were one of the most moving experience of our pilgrimage to Lourdes.  Certainly, we are very grateful to the kind and helpful volunteers who give of themselves to help pilgrims.

An acknowledgment of God’s presence in our lives

Witnessing so many people wearing their faith ‘on their sleeve’ in their own pilgrimage to Lourdes was powerful.  Actually, our pilgrimage to Lourdes was not just due to curiosity, or even strictly to see a place where an important event in our faith took place, though that certainly contributed to wanting to go.  Our very personal trip was a real pilgrimage of thanksgiving and prayer for continued health in my family after a year-and-a-half of dealing with cancer and having dealt with an Alzheimer’s sufferer’s last years on this Earth with us…  The grotto and the holy waters of Lourdes carry a very special meaning for us, even more now that we have been so blessed to visit this place…

For official information on schedules, events, maps, and other helpful information to plan your pilgrimage to Lourdes, please check out the Sanctuary’s website:  https://www.lourdes-france.org/en

P.S. (Dec. 2019) – Part of the reason for the pilgrimage, though I did not share it when I published the post initially, was for my sister, Luly, who was battling stage 4 breast cancer at the time.  She lost her battle earlier this year after three years of a good fight, full of spirit and faith; putting up with endless needles and treatments so she could be there for her young adult children.  Please, please be proactive in checking yourselves for early signs of this terrible disease be it with self-detection, colonoscopies or any other way.  You can read more about my beautiful sister and our opportunities to travel and laugh together in this memorial blog post I shared earlier in 2019.  Peace.

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