Lourdes
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2006
1
16
24
Trip End
Dec 24, 2006
Lourdes,
France
Sunday, October 8, 2006
After a truly excruciating night train ride, we got to Lourdes at 6:45. For future reference, if anyone ever happens to take an overnight train in France, make sure that it is a train with either sleeping compartments or reclinable seats, not the ordinary old TGV (train a` grande vitesse...high speed train), because otherwise you will be absolutely miserable. It's worse than sleeping on an airplane, because at least airplane seats recline, and they turn off the overhead lights at night. I think that very soon I'm going to write an entry about things in France that make no sense to me.
When we arrived, it was raining and cold, but Jen's host brother had told her it would clear up by 2 p.m.
Me in front of the sanctuaries
(which it did), so we weren't too disappointed. The streets leading to the sanctuaries and the Grotto are filled with what must be hundreds of shops filled with everything you could possibly think of relating to Lourdes and Catholicism in general - in addition to all kinds of souvenirs with a picture of Our Lady of Lourdes appearing to St. Bernadette or with the word "Lourdes", there were crosses, rosaries of every size and color, every size of decorative bottle and jug to fill at the Grotto, statues, medals, and prayer cards of Mary and the saints, Christmas ornaments, candles, postcards, and more. It was pretty amazing. Finally, we got to the area with the sanctuaries. One, the Basilique Saint Pie X, is completely underground. The other two, the Basilique du Rosaire and another, which is built directly on top of the Basilique du Rosaire and whose name I can't remember, are built over the Grotto. Everything is on the banks of a little river, with the beautiful Pyrenees all around, so it's very beautiful. Coming up to the area, you see the two basilicas in front of you looking sort of like a castle, and we both said that it looked like the Catholic Walt Disney World. We visited the Grotto first thing, because my guidebook said the lines get longer as the day goes on (which turned out to be true). It was incredibly moving, especially when we went over to the area where everyone could pray and light candles (which we did). We filled up the little bottles we had bought with eau de Lourdes and then weren't sure what to do next since it was so cold and wet.
The candles by the grotto
After sitting inside the visitor center for a little while and coming up with our schedule for the day, we visited the Basilique du Rosaire and then did a little shopping in what was by far the largest and most impressive of the shops (what I dubbed "the Catholic Wal-Mart...without all the worker exploitation"), followed by a lunch that I was not a huge fan of except for the hot fries and the Bordeaux wine. After doing some other very Catholic stuff around Lourdes and exploring the upper part of the sanctuaries, we decided check into our hotel, and promptly took what turned out to be a 3 1/2 hour nap. We woke up just in time to buy candles and get to the square in time for the torchlight procession, which turned out to be really cool. Everyone carries candles to symbolize their baptism, just like at the Easter Vigil mass, and there is a procession around the square back to the front of the sanctuaries. A rosary is said, but instead of being in French like the one at the Grotto in the afternoon, it's an international one so that virtually everyone is included. The Our Father and Glory Be are in Latin, and the language changes every 5 Hail Marys, so we got through Latin, Italian, French, English, Spanish, German, Dutch, Romanian, Polish, and Portugese. There is also a hymn between each decade that is either in Latin or with verses that alternate languages, and each mystery is said in each of the six official languages of the Lourdes sanctuaries (French, Italian, English, Spanish, German, and Dutch).
The Grotto
Lots of groups who were there carried signs or flags proclaiming who they were or where they were from, and we got really excited to see a big American flag across the way. After the procession, we stopped at a little cafe to eat something, and we were looking at the menu posted outside trying to see if it was where we wanted to eat. I guess the waiters are used to having to try to guess people's nationality and language, and I guess I look really Italian more than anything else, because the waiter saw me looking at the menu (which was in French, English, and German) and said "Buona sera." I was a little confused, but I replied "Buona sera," and he asked, "Italiano, no?" I could tell he was Italian, so I told him, "No, siamo americane (No, we're American)." He looked surprised and asked me, "Ma parlate italiano?" (But you two speak Italian?) I answered, "Si, lo ho studiato all'universita, ma la mia amica non lo parla." (Yes, I studied it at school, but my friend doesn't speak it) He complimented me on my Italian and was very nice to us (speaking mostly in English). It sort of confused us as far as what language to speak with him, though, because we're in France and so we want to speak French, and when French people respond to us in English, we typically ignore it and continue in French (their English is usually awful, anyway), but he wasn't French and his English was very good. I felt like I should keep speaking Italian because it was his language and that was the language we had started in, but I hadn't looked at the Italian menu and so didn't know what the thing I wanted to order was called in Italian, so I sort of used a French-Italian mix, while Jen did French and the waiter spoke English and some Italian.
The torchlight procession
All the waiters at this cafe were Italian, and when we left, one of them called after us "Grazie! Thank you! Merci beaucoup!" It was pretty funny. Sunday morning was definitely awesome. We went to the international mass, and came an hour early so we could be part of the choir, which anyone can do as long as they arrive early to rehearse and they speak one of the 6 official languages (French, English, Italian, German, Spanish, or Dutch). There were several songs and parts of the mass sung in Latin, and several songs which everyone sang in their own language. It was very cool. I was proud of myself because I've been learning some German out of a "German for Travelers" book, and I was able to actually remember how to say things, use, and make actual Germans understand me during the rehearsal. The choir director only spoke French, English, Italian, and a little bit of Spanish, so when he would say a page number, someone would have to tell the Germans what the page was, and Jen and I were sitting next to them, so I would lean over and translate the numbers for them. The mass itself was very cool, too. It was celebrated in all six languages simultaneously - meaning the French priest would say a section of the liturgy in French, then the Spanish priest would say the next part in Spanish, etc., and responses like "The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all" "And also with you" would be in Latin (and put up on a big screen to be sure everyone knew what they were. The archbishop emeritus of Naples was visiting, so he presided and there was more Italian than anything else (at least it was a language I could more or less understand...if it had been German, Dutch, or Spanish I would have been lost). It was held in the undergound Basilique du Saint Pie X, which was very cool. All in all, a very good weekend - definitely worth the trip.
