Our trip to Lourdes - May 1996

Arrangements

Aaron our son had already been to Lourdes twice with HCPT both times at Easter in 1995 and 1996. The first time he went, we were so apprehensive about whether he would cope being away from us for the first time in his life. After his first day there, he never asked for us again. He returned home a different person. He was only 6 years old but he was more self assured and confident. The second time he went, we had no worries about him missing us.

Here is a picture of Aaron in Lourdes with some flowers for The Crowned Virgin

Whilst in Lourdes the second time, he told the helpers that he would like to become a Catholic and astounded them with the knowledge he had picked up regarding the Catholic faith and the stories regarding Bernadette, The Virgin Mary and Lourdes. On returning home he told us that he would like to take us to Lourdes some day. On many occasions we had thought of arranging a trip to Disney in Florida, but when we asked Aaron if he would like to go there, he always said he would rather go to Lourdes with us. When we told the group who had taken Aaron to Lourdes, they offered to arrange for us all to go out there in May. They also suggested that two of the helpers who had been to Lourdes many times should go with us to show us the ropes. We agreed and the trip was arranged. We had three weeks to arrange all the passports, time off work, currency etc. We let Scott, Aarons older brother in on the secret, but we did not tell Aaron.

Panic

We were flying out from Manchester Airport at 5am and had to check in by 4am. We therefore set our alarm for 2am to give us a decent chance of getting to the airport on time. The alarm never went off and at 3 am when we awoke it was a mad panic for the next two hours. Luckily there is not much traffic around at 3 am in the morning and neither are there many police patrol cars. We arrived at the airport just after 4am and made our way to the departures lounge, where we had arranged to meet Louise and Steve the two helpers.

Surprise

Aaron had no idea where we were going - we had told him that we were going for a day trip to Blackpool and that we had to go to the airport first so I could meet somebody from work.
Steve and Louise here hiding behind a pillar and I was a little disapointed when Aaron didn't seem too surprised to see them. However when we went to the check in, he started to be a little suspicious and when we told him the truth he was quite taken back, but very happy. He could not beleive that we had managed to keep the trip a secret from him (especially his brother Scott).

Our flight out was uneventful, taking just under two hours, having a gin and tonic after breakfast and landing just as the town was awaking.

We were driven by coach from the airport to our hotel St. George and after checking in were shown to our rooms.
St Georges hotel, Lourdes
My previous experiences of French hotels had led me to be quite apprehensive about what our rooms would be like. However, apart from a few anomalies such as the reading lights not working and the toilet being in a different closet to the bidet, the rooms were surprisingly pleasant. We unpacked and decided our first trip would be to the Grotto.

We set off walking and within a couple of blocks came across the Hotel de Notre Dame where the group take over one whole floor for the Easter week. The staff came out one by one although they recognised the two helpers, looked at aaron with a puzzled look then exploded with waving arms and excited French as they recognised him. The manager came out and invited us all in for a drink, which we accepted. Steve told me later that this was the first time that the manager had ever bought any of their group a drink. We agreed this must be our miracle for this pilgrimage. After our social visit with the staff of Notre Dame, it was too late to go down to the Grotto, so we returned to our hotel for lunch.

French food has a reputation for being the best in the world. However to your regular working/middle class British citizen (as you might loosely describe our party), plain British food is what you have been brought up on and all your stomach is used to. I had heard stories of frog spawn soup and many dishes in which the meat could not be identified. Being a very healthy eater, I was rather worried that the food would not be to my liking and that I would not be able to wait to return home to fish and chips and other British delicacies.

There is probably only one food I will not eat at home and that is crab. I will not eat veal neither for moral reasons. The starter arrived and it was crab sticks. My worst fears were coming true. However after the crab sticks, I ate every course of every meal and found them all delicious, even though we had many an arguement as to what the meat was each time. I am fairly sure I ate veal at one meal, although it could have been turkey or even pork.

After dinner, although by now we were becoming a little tired, we set off for the Grotto. The evening was lovely and mild and the first part of the walk was along the banks of the River Gave. After a couple of hundred metres we reached one of the main streets at the bottom of the town. From the quiet and tranquil banks of the river, we were suddenly surrounded by people in the narrow streets, mostly heading in the same direction. Here I had my first chance to notice the hundreds of shops. Nearly all are souvenir and gift shops, selling everything and anything connected with Lourdes and the Catholic Faith. The goods in the shops ranged from very tacky to very beautiful and expensive. Many shops sold water bottles in sizes ranging from a few millilitres to several litres. Also on sale were candles which had a paper holder on which were printed the words of Ave Maria in several languages. Steve bought our supply of candles. Louise bought some flowers for The Crowned Virgin

The closer to the Grotto we went, I noticed the candles and other items became more expensive! After the last of the shops, we crossed over the road along with the thousands of other pilgrims and entered the area of the Grotto.
We passed through the gateway and down the short incline and walked over to the statue of The Crowned Virgin. Steve, Louise and Aaron placed the flowers near the statue and prayers were said. By the Statue of The Crowned Virgin, I had my first sight of the Basilica. from this position, we could see the facade of the Basilica and the 'courtyard' in front of it where the daily processions culminate.

(to be continued)