Our Lady of Lourdes Part 2 27 July 2011

As advised, we got up nice and early to visit the Baths. In fact, it is not opened until 9am, however by the time we got there at 8am, there was a lot of people in the queue.
The Bathes are separated on two sides for male and female, so I can only give the account from my perspective. Out of respect for the people there, I did not take any photographs, only have my memories to let you know of my experience.

Most of the ladies in the queue were elderly Italian women, what I loved most about them were their faith. They did not sit idly chatting, one of the lady started to lead the rosary in Italian. I follow along in English, until I realised in fact Chinese fit the Italian wordings better so I switched over. The wait did not seem all that long afterwards, with prayer and songs the hour just flew by.
During this time, volunteers came to report for duty. I think one group of them must be high school students who are volunteering for the summer break, they were polite, humble and showed respect to others. Whoever that says young people these days are all self centered, send them to Lourdes!

There is a deeper meaning to the symbolism of the Lourdes waters.
It is the sign of the love of Christ who gives his life for sinners.
It is a sign of baptism that has given us life as the children of God.
It is also a sign of the Sacrament of Pennance, in which God offers us forgiveness, purification and reconciliation.
The deep meaning of the water of Lourdes is inscribed into the walls of the tap and bath area - "Wash your face and ask God to Purify your heart".

Zoom into the photo and you will see the chinese inscription of the same message.

The water was very cold, I was only dipped into the bath for a very short time and memory is already fleeting. I remember myself saying a prayer similar to the inscription, to ask God to help purify my heart. Stepping into the freezing water, I already thought perhaps its not the best idea after all, but I saw the statue of Mary there and was again reminded of St Bernadette. She was much more obedient than me.

I'm really glad I went, because not only is it a symbol of God's grace to purify me, it was also a call to step out of my comfort zone in my path towards Jesus. His path is not always easy, but he promises to walk with us through it all.

Here is another photo of the volunteers in the afternoon taking the sick to different areas of the sanctuary in Lourdes. Please give them some prayers for this great mission they are doing.

I met back up with the boys afterwards, we decided to go make lunch by buying a baguette, tomato and some hams. A cheap and affordable lunch!

We had to go back to the train station to sort out our tickets for the next day, so unfortunately we missed a guided tour of Lourdes and the life of St Bernadette.

In the end we first went to again wash our face, drink of the water at the water tap together.

Then we took a walk along the Upper Way of the Cross. Take a look at this sign just before you enter into the walk.

The path is up a mountain, a small hike that takes you from the time of Jesus' trial to his death.

All the stations were life size, as I walked along, I can imagine myself as one of the women who follows Jesus to the cross. The whole experience was very humbling and moving. I ask myself, who am I that Jesus was willing to bear the cross for me?

That night we had a quiet night in after dinner. We got some hot water and made some Chinese tea, then sat in the reception to chat and to use the wifi internet. The hotel owner joined us later for a cuppa Chinese tea too. He was a really nice guy, we found out that he is a French Canadian who only works at the hotel for three months each year. The other times the hotel is mainly closed, a lot of the business depended on visiting pilgrims.

Being the last night in France, some things I noticed that I really want to commend is first the impeccable manners of the hospitality industry, silver service is the most perfected out of all the places I have visited so far. Secondly is the training of their dogs, I think France is the only place where I have found everyday dogs on the streets trained to be fully paying attention to their masters!
A dog can go onto the busy metro without a leash and there is absolutely no fuss! Terrific! If only I can train BoBo or Edison to be like the French dogs!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Calle de Santa Corda,San Sebastián,Spain

Our lady of Lourdes Part 1 26 July 2011

A pleasant meal with pleasant sleep in Bordeaux. We actually got another bottle of wine to take back to the hotel to drink. We weren't able to finish it as we were all quite tired! Quite unfortunate.
The next (late) morning we hopped onto a train on our way to the last stop in France, Lourdes.
At the train station, we met a Dutch nurse also on his way to Lourdes, his name was Marco and he assisted Martin with buying a lotto ticket. He was really nice guy, but he did add a lot of "interesting" adjective to all his sentences!
We arrived to yet another drizzling city. Lourdes is in the Pyrenees mountain region. Stepping outside our view was of lush green mountains ranges and low rain clouds covering their peaks.
Perhaps its just me, but I thought I just got closer to heaven. It's fitting as Lourdes is one of the most famous pilgrimage sites for Catholics in the world.

Here is a short overview for readers who do not know Lourdes' story.
Our Lady, Holy Mary first appeared to Bernadette in 1858 when she was 14 years of age. Mary appeared to Bernadette many times, often asking for prayers and penance. Two of the key event that changed Lourdes to become the pilgrimage site it is today one, the request of mary to have a chapel built at the apparition site, and two was the request of Mary to Bernadette in one of the apparitions to "kiss the earth, eat the grass and drink of the water" in the grotto which Mary showed her. There was no water there, only mud. At the time, it was difficult for her as the "grass was bitter and the water repugnant". However, over the next few days after Bernadette did as Mary requested, a spring of clear water appeared where there was none before, after which people following her also drank the water. It is claimed that the water has healing properties.

Following the call of Mary, we too come to this pilgrimage site.

We stayed at Hotel St Roch in Lourdes, nicely located between the sanctuary and the train station, everywhere was a close walking distance.
This hotel is an old hotel with a small cranky lift that could only fit Vincent and I with our backpacks, so Martin had to wait for the next one.

Our room

View from our room, looking down the path that leads to the sanctuary.



Although the Hotel was old, everything was clean and the room quite spacious compared to Paris.
I really looked forward to visiting this pilgrimage site, I have seen so many photos and heard so many stories of other people visiting Lourdes.
It was already late afternoon by the time we finally got down into the sanctuary. Its a beautiful sight to behold, to me the Basilica can be described as elegant and graceful.


At the entrance, to celebrate 2010 theme of "the sign of the cross", pilgrims were invited to put up their own cross.

This year's theme is "pray the The Lord's prayer with St Bernadette", so along the path towards the sanctuary are signs with The Lord's Prayer in 44 languages. Here is the one in Chinese.

As all the signs are photo replicas of plaques in an old church, this is the older version of the prayer.

We took a look around the sanctuary.

This is the Rosary Basilica,

All the motifs were masterpieces of mosaic works.

The Crowned Virgin Statue

This is the Crypt, next to this is the chapel of the Relics of St Bernadette.

We decided to join the Blessed Sacrament Procession which was held in the Underground Basilica of St Pius X.

We all thought this four sided alter was terrific.

Here is the fantastic organist, an amazing player, when he finished the Final hymn, everyone around him applaused.

During the procession, I stood on the side and I noticed these people pulling trolleys to park in an area on one of the sides of the alter. Inside the trolleys were the sick and the elderly. The love and care shown to the lesser among us deeply moved me. I later found out in fact many of these helpers are volunteers or pilgrims like myself.
When one goes on a pilgrimage, you go searching for God, looking to meet Jesus. I felt I found him in these people. Jesus asked us simply to love one another, and they have lived out this commandment.

After this procession we walked up the "souvenir street" as we have dubbed it, to find some dinner. We ate at a local bar and had some pizza and chips.

At 9pm, we got down to the sanctuary again to join the Torchlight Marian Procession. It was cold and raining miserably, but this did not seem to deter any of the visitors from joining in. The lighting of candles spread slowly across the esplanade until all the candles were lit. In the rain, the people around us said the rosary together in all our different languages. This is one of the reasons I love my Catholic faith, the continuity and union of the universal church allows me to know I'm part of a bigger whole under Christ in a very real and tangible way. There is no limits to language, age, or class, we are all in union with Christ. It is an awesome experience, I think everyone should have a chance to experience this at least once in their lifetime.

At the end of the procession, me being me I didn't stop singing, but I kinda ran out of anymore Latin songs so I switched to Chinese hymns. It is at moments like these that I know God is watching over me, because out of the hundreds of people there, some fellow pilgrims from HK heard me and came over for a chat! They were really nice, they have stayed in Lourdes for two days already and gave us some pointers for the next day.
They really encourages us to go experience the Lourdes Bath which we were not initially intending to visit. To be honest I was quite skeptical of the idea of stripping naked to dip into the freezing waters of the spring. Even if healing miracles is possible for those who seek it with faith and trust.
But since these new friends recommended it so strongly, we decided we will give it a go early tomorrow morning.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Av de Barcelona,San Sebastián,Spain

Bordeaux the city of Wine 25 July 2011

After a good night sleep in Tours, we left the Chateau of Loire for the wine in Bordeaux.
Unfortunately due to available train schedules we were unable to join a tour to visit the wine country, instead we stopped in the city of Bordeaux.

A side note, read the euro rail pass carefully, although the tickets are covered the reservation fees for seats or beds onboard the trains are not. Make sure to inquire about necessary reservations as you may be fined for incomplete boarding payments. We were very confused when the train operators asked us in French for an extra 30 euros, we initially thought there was a misunderstanding for the tickets, turns out we still needed to pay for reservations. It took a lot of actions and body language from both parties to understand each other!

If you have ever seen travel shows of Bordeaux, often they only visit the vineyards and estates, which is a dramatic difference to the city.
We entered the city of Bordeaux in fine misting rain, if any thinner, it would have been a thick fog instead of rain.
Our hotel is right next to the train station, Hotel Faisan.

We took the tram into town once we dropped off our luggage. Like most cities we have visited so far, Bordeaux is situated right next to a river, the tram we took follows the rivers edge so we were on the outskirts of the city centre.

I found that the older part of Bordeaux has a majesty comparative to Paris. Looming sand coloured buildings lines the streets, interestingly, I found that the city was built in a very symmetrical way, mirror images everywhere, it gave a man made aesthetic beauty to this city.

This is the monument to the Girondins in Place des Quinconces. In tribute to the Girondins revolutionaries and to the Republic.

Here is the description.

Enough of history, this visit's main aim is for some vino!!
Since we were unable to visit the vineyards, instead we visited some wine cellars in the city.








I admit that I'm clueless when it comes to this topic, but i did find some impressively priced wine available.












Our wine lover, Martin, could not resist taking a trophy home!
The last one on the right!



What is wine without good food? The receptionist recommended us the famous Restaurant Fernand.

Check out the set menu we ordered.

La soupe de poisson maison




La terrine bordelaise au canard at au fois gras








L'emince de magret d'Oie nature ou jus aux cepes




Le duo de filets de bar et dorade




Mousse lactee sur croquant au praline et glacage chocolate miroir



For the observant viewer, yes, it's not the same bottle. We did not get to open Martin's vintage, which he plans on taking home.
However the 2008 bottle he selected for dinner was still terrific.

It was an overall beautiful meal and a very pleasant way to experience Bordeaux. A day to slow down from sightseeing and instead to enjoy a lovely gastronomical trip through French cuisine. What more can this pilgrim traveller ask for?

Something of interest I wanted to mention.

See the blue Sheets over the bathroom door? The door was in fact glass! Not completely see through, but enough to cause some embarrassment! It's a three person room, it baffles me the logic of such a door selection for the bathroom!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Hotel St Roch, Lourdes