My wife, Heather, and I just returned last week from a two week vacation (see the slide show) to Southern France and Northern Spain to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary.  The trip concluded with a five day pilgrimage to Lourdes, France site of St. Bernadette’s 18 Marian apparitions in 1858.  The main reason for going was to experience Lourdes, but with Heather getting two weeks off and me being unemployed we figured the chance for a lengthy trip of this nature might not come along again for a very long time.  We splurged on a car rental which in hind-sight was great as it give us the freedom to play the travel game at our leisure.

The trip started with three flights to a medium sized city in Southern France called Toulouse.  From there we traveled by car for about 8 days moving in a counter clockwise circle.  Toulouse, Arzujanzx, St. Jean de Luz, Pamplona, Jacca, Sallent, and Lourdes were the cities and towns that we lodged in.  We spent four nights in Lourdes which was easily the highlight of the trip.  In general we found this part of Europe to be easy to travel (i.e., we have both been before and Heather’s Spanish is pretty good and we can both fake it a bit in French) and if one is careful where you stay and eat affordable.  However, with the current exchange rate heavily favoring the Euro I would not call this a “cheap” trip.  The food seemed especially expensive and we always had a Patisarie/Panaderia breakfest which is about as budget as you can get.  Note: if you don’t stop at a Patisarie everyday in France then I would think you are crazy.  The bread is out of this world and you simply don’t know what a Chocolate Croissant is until you have had one in France.

We spent our anniversary in Lourdes attending 6:30 AM Mass the day of at the Grotto – what a blessing!  Lourdes has to be experienced to be truly understood.  The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes probably encompasses 50 acres or so of land on which reside three Basilicas, numerous smaller churches and chapels, Reconciliation Chapel that supplies abundant priests fluent in roughly ten languages, Baths, Grotto, candle burners, Adoration Chapel, daily evening outdoor Rosary procession, etc.  It was unreal to attend a facility where the Body of Christ was continuously active praising and worshiping God.  While I was there I read ‘Bernadette Speaks’ by René Laurentin which help to fill in the history of Lourdes and St. Bernadette’s life story before, during, and after the apparitions.