With the exception of a last 30 minute ride around the town of Lourdes, today I played the tourist in a town that exists in every sense of the word on the tourist.

Lourdes as a town has existed for well over a millennium, and through the ages has been under rule from a variety of countries and their extended armies. What really bought it to initially France and later the World's attention, was back on the 11th February 1858 when a 14 year old girl Bernadette Soubirous claimed to have seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary while out collecting firewood with her friends. Over the next few months she experienced another 17 visits from Mary in the area known as The Grotto.

Now as a practicing Catholic I first learnt of this story nearly 40 years ago when my Grandparents had visited Lourdes back in the 1960's. To spend today immersing myself in the town with other Pilgrims visiting all the historical sites was an amazing experience.

Over the past week I have seen thousands upon thousands of people come in and out of town as part of their pilgrimage (be that in an organized tour or as a family). After Paris the town of Lourdes is the 2nd most visited town in France with over 5 Million people coming here each year. They come from all over the world. Irish, Spanish, Italian, German, Scottish, American.............you name the country and I bet you that they have been here this year (Nth Korea and Albania aside).

It is a massive organizational effort to coordinate the daily religious activities in a variety of languages across a town of only 15,000 inhabitants (14,943 that work in Tourism). There are 1000's of volunteers that come here just to help out as guides and cater to those not as fortunate.

Whether one believes or not that Mary did appear over 150 years ago, there is something special as you move through the Sanctuaries and The Grotto where the water still pours from the cave that Mary appeared in.

As I mentioned before the town is built on the Tourism, and I have never seen so many Souvenir shops. At a a rough count there would be 200 shops selling every conceivable piece of paraphernalia you can think of. My pictures will give you a flavor.

At 9 PM each night they have the Procession which I went to twice. This was one of my highlights with thousand of people holding candles and singing hymns at the same time in a variety of languages.

Well tomorrow I am off to Paris for a couple of days of leisure after 2 weeks and 930 KM of cycling the Alps and The Pyrenees. It has been a blast, and to watch Cadel Evans slot into 2nd today in the TDF after Stage 2 made was amazing.

Food wise I had a great Tarragon Chicken tonight that was served to me on a black bathroom tile (I hope it was clean). My camera was out of battery, so sorry for no pics. It was excellent and has a real rustic feel and taste to it. It went well with the Citron (lemon) tart I had afterwards.

Till Paris from the Cycling Foodie.

Posted from

Lourdes, France