, here's the break down:Holy Thursday:
I left Angers around 13h30 and arrived around 21h15. Bleh. And I couldn't go to Holy Thursday mass, which was a major bummer, but can I really complain about anything? So, lot of train time, but no big deal! My hotel (weren't really any hostels in Lourdes, so I found a little family-owned one star hotel that was pretty reasonably priced) was super close to the train station, so I found it without any problems, checked in, and then basically relaxed so that I could wake up early and refreshed tomorrow.
Good Friday:
Woke up, ate breakfast (included with the hotel), and then headed out to, first of all, find the Tourism Office and get a map! Well, I had printed a map offline, and didn't realize that to access the road of the tourism office from a certain square you had to go up a set of stairs (the road overpassed the square), so it took me a little time to find the Tourism Office and a bit more time to find les Sanctuaires (the basillicas, the grotto, the baths, etc). Of course, I also found out later that the way I arrived at the sanctuaries was a bit round about, but no biggie. Since I had three full days at Lourdes, I decided to let Friday be a leisurely day to explore. So, I went inside the different Basilicas and chapels (they are all part of the same overall construction, but la Basilique du Rosaire is ground level, then when you climb the side slopes or the staires, there's le crypte and then above the crypte is la Basilique de la Conception Imaculée. There are also lots of side chapels). I visited the afterwards, which is basically on the right side of the sanctuaries and the basilicas (they built them around the grotto), and it was a bit of surreal experience, because you have this rock feature where a saint was visited by the Blessed Mother, and then you have these metal benches, concrete, bars for the line to circulate through the grotto, etc. Definitely an interesting juxtaposition of history and modernity. I just couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that Our Lady was HERE. Saint Bernadette was in the same spot as I. It's mindblowing! Anyhoo, at noon I prayed the stations of the cross with a group, and it was really incredible - la chemin de la croix was situated on a hill, so you have to keep climbing to see the statues representing the different stations, and while there you get a incredible view of the Pyrenees (forgot to mention that the mountains in Lourdes are AMAZING). I did a bit more exploring after the stations and then a bit before 3pm I settled myself in the crypte to say a rosary, and when I was about to the end a large group of Germans came in and started to pray the rosary. It was awesome - nothing like the Hail Mary in German rebounding off the walls of a small chapel. After the rosary I went to confession, which was quite an interesting experience because it was basically rows of chairs in between confessionals on both sides, and there were different corridors for different languages of confession. I said my confession in English, just because of the nature of confession; it's so much easier to speak openly from your heart in your native language. My confessor was a rather interesting, midly anti-French, American priest. So yes. Afterwards I headed back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner at 19h00 (I decided to eat dinner at the hotel - so much easier Easter weekend. Who knows what would have been open?), and the sister (was a brother-sister business, I think) arranged it so that the three people alone at the hotel ate together. So I met a really sweet older woman and a younger guy who worked for the Post Office in Paris. After dinner, we headed together to la Basilique de Saint-Pie X (underground and enormous! Very modern architecture, too - like an upside-down boat) for the Good Friday Service and then I headed to bed.
Holy Saturday
Woke up at around 8h00 (impressive, right? It's weird - France has made me a little old lady...I go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. lol You silly inner clock, you!) and dedicated the morning to "le chemin du jubilé" (the way of the Jubilee). Basically, you go to four different spots in Lourdes associated with Saint Bernadette, pray, reflect, etc...there's also a prayer of the Jubilee. So, if you do it in the specified order (via the Pope), you start with the Parish Church where Bernadette was baptized, then head to le Cachot, an old prison where the Sourbibous lived for some time out of desparation, and then you arrive at the sanctuaries by la porte de Saint Michel, go through les arcades (basically 7 archways that all lead to the grotto), and arrive at the grotto for step number three. After I visited the grotto it was about noon, so I went wandering to find a boulangerie where I could buy a sandwich, ate lunch, and then did a bit of browsing through the MILLIONS of souvenir shops. Really. I could not tell you how many shops with Lourdes souvenirs there were. After a while you learn to discern between them, pick the better ones, but even then it's a bit overwhelming. At around 2 I headed to fourth and final step (I took a long break because it was closed between noon and 2) - the hospice (now hospital) where Bernadette received her first communion. I thought it was a rather beautiful way to order the visits; they wrote that they purposely had it end with the Eucharist, as Mary would not want it to end with her but with her Son. After having finished la Chemin du Jubilé, I did a bit more shopping and found a rosary (I lost my First Holy Communion Rosary freshman year and have been waiting to buy a new one) - it is rather simple and made of the same quality of wood as St-Bernadette's first rosary. One thing that I have learned to appreciate more concretely from this pilgrimage is how God really works through the humble and the lowly. After dinner I headed with the my acquaintances from the hotel to the Easter Vigil mass, which was awesome. I forgot to mention in describing Good Friday that these masses were International Masses, i.e. parts of the mass were read in a total of six different languages (French was, of course, the base language, but then there was Italien, Spanish, English, German, and Dutch). Also, when we went to mass, we were a bit late, so we decided to sit in different rows on the aisle seats so we could all see a bit better, and there were two asians girls in a row, and I asked them in French if the seat was taken, tried in English (don't think they heard me), and the younger girl said in broken French that there were German, so I said allemand? Oh! Ist hier noch frei? And then I sat down next to them and got to practice some German for a while before mass started! Wunderbar!
Easter Sunday!
So, I started off the day going to the Easter morning mass with another woman from the hotel (what better way to set the tone for the day, even if I did go to Easter Vigil?) After mass, I decided to look at the Baths (which I discovered were just beyond the grotto), and realized that I should have gone on Friday when there was hardly anyone there, because there were LOTS of people on Sunday, of course, and the lines for the baths were impossibly long. Ah well. Perhaps it's better not to do everything in one go - leaves something for a return trip (and I definitely want to come back!) So, I found a boulangerie that was open and had a rather simple lunch, which did, however, include a rather delectible chocolate pastry. ^_^ Did I mention that the weather was rather unpleasant and strange? Rain off and on Friday, more rain Saturday and snow in the afternoon, and then hail after Easter Sunday mass...followed by snow and rain...and a bit more rain. Ah well. Somehow it still worked out quite well, even if it was cold and rainy the entire time. The afternoon I decide to make a mini-pilgrimage to Bartrès, a village a couple kilometers outside of Lourdes where Bernadette lived for some time. If you take le Chemin de Bernadette, it is a lot longer, but it is the path that she took (approx) to make the treck from Bartrès to Lourdes and back. You go through some beautiful country side (I was a mildly worried several times that I had made a mistake...paricularly when I had to walk between the fences of two different farm properties, but I was right and got there after a 45min walk. It was also essential all uphill, so you got a really good view of the mountains and the city below! So gorgeous!!!) In the town, there is l'église de Saint Jean Baptiste, where Bernadette often came to pray, a home where she lived for some time, and the place where she watched the sheep. That was particularly interesting because it was virtually untouched, and it was a bit easier to imagine the past of the place, etc. On the way back, I missed a turn somewhere and found out that taking the main roads is a lot quicker (and a bit easier), but it was totally worth the crazy country treck! I got back in time to rest a bit before eating dinner and rushing back to the sanctuaries to buy a ticket for a concert at la Basilique du Rosaire. Sunday marked the beginning of le Festival de la Musique Sacrée, so I listened to Charpentier's Messe de la Vièrge et Te Deum. It was so incredible. I really could have listened to the orchestra and singers forever, but the concert had to end at some point. It was, however, an awesome end to my Easter Sunday in Lourdes.
Easter Monday
So, I woke up early this morning so I could make mass at the grotto at 8h30. Just by coincidence, it was an English mass, and even though it was raining the entire time, it was worth it one, because it was at the grotto and two, because it's been two months since I've attended a mass where all the responses are innate and natural. I have the hang of things now with the mass in French, have picked up a decent amount of the responses, but there's nothing like praying in your native tongue. After mass, I said my goodbyes to the sanctuaries and to Lourdes and caught the train back to Lourdes at 11h15. Got back to Angers at 18h15 and was quite ready to be done with the train...for the moment.
Well, that's about it for my Easter Adventures - I hope everyone had wonderful Easter breaks, etc. I'd love to hear about them if any one has the time to drop a e-mail my way! :)
Ok. Captions: les sanctuaires par la porte de Saint-Michel, the "crown"/dome of la Basilique du Rosaire, Notre Dame de Lourdes (statue on the pathway to la porte de Saint Michel, if your back is to the sanctuaries), the grotto, and le bergier
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