Paul's visit- South of France (Lourdes)

We arrived in Lourdes fairly early in the morning and as soon as we stepped off the train we realized how cold it was. In France, it doesnt' really get below minus 3 or 4 but the cold here is so much different than that of Canada. In France, its a bitter cold becuase there is so much moisture. Its the cold that chills you immediately to the bone. So, actually minus 1 feels more like minus 25. So anyways- it was cold in Lourdes. Plus, in Lourdes you are closer to the mountains and so that automatically makes it really cold.

So, we left our bags at the little coffee shop across from the train station and started walking towards the grotto where Mary appeared to Bernadette 16 times in 1858. Now, at the grotto there is a very large church, a museum, a water hole where you can bath in water from the grotto as well as the grotto itself. Neither Paul or I really knew what the grotto was going to look like and it was like a cave with a stream of water going through it. There, Mary had appeared to Bernadette. Apparently, the church has pronounced 66 miracles that have happened at the grotto. Miracles such as people walking away from their wheelchairs and things like that. So, it was actually very holy being there.

So, we walked around there for a long time freezing our butts off. It was a very different tourist experience. I felt like I was walking on holy ground. Paul went into the pool of grotto water where they wash you with the grotto water (which is freezing cold as well) and then they pray with you but I couldnt do it. I wasnt comfortable enough but Paul said it was a really good experience.

We walked around the town a little bit more but it was mostly dead because winter (because its so cold) is the off season there and there werent that many people. The museum was actually closed as where other things so there were a few things that I would have liked to see that we werent able to.

We ate at a little dinner that wasnt very good and then we decided to go for a cafe (which we always did) and we played cards in the cafe for about 5 hours because it was way too cold outside to do anything. our train back to Paris was at 11:30pm and we sat in the cafe from 6pm to about 11pm.

Our train ended up being 45mins late and we realized we werent going to make the connection we needed to at another town to get back to Paris. I was talking with the train guards and they said there was another train going back to Paris later on that night that we could ride on for a whlie but that it was actually pronounced as full so we might have to stand. We were supposed to get off at a particular town where the train that we were supposed to be on and the one we were going to go on, met. Talk about confusing. So, we got on the train and looked around for seats which actually werent hard to find (thank goodness.) we sat down but then at each stop we had to keep getting up just in case we were sitting in people's seats but no one came to claim them the whole time we were on the train so we were lucky. We made our connection at this random town and made it back to Paris.