Lourdes Travel Blog – My reminiscing of summer gone by and view of this Wonderful Spiritual City!
Lourdes How we Got there
With quirky streets, bustling tourist district and renowned spiritual retreat & scene, Lourdes shines esp. in summer. If you are planning a trip to The Pyrenees most visited city, then our Lourdes Travel Blog right here could make your trip one to remember!
Hey its Julie, and how are you today!
I am no Huffington Post Writer…and why not, Ima add this to my “Vision Dream Board“. But I believe my Lourdes travel blog will give you a taste of what we saw during our visit to Lourdes…! As you know by now we have a passion for travel and lately I’ve been reminiscing about our pilgrimages, esp to Lourdes. It was always on of our bucket list and we couldn’t wait. Do you have a place you’ve always dreamed about visiting?
As a child growing up in Kampala, I was in awe of pilgrims and all the wonderful stories they told us, its one of the things that fed my passion for travel! I dreamt about visiting Rome, Assisi, Israel, Fatima, Medjugorje, Guadeloupe and Lourdes…right! We intend to see all these and many more places as long as we have breath & by God’s grace. My family have in fact seen a fair few already, and Paul & I had the joy of visiting Lourdes not only as Pilgrims but also as tourists. So let me tell you what I learnt about Lourdes; it is a small market town at the foothills of the Pyrenees, south of France and is world renowned as the Sanctuary of our Lady of Immaculate Conception.
Lourdes is famous for the 18 or so Marian Apparitions of our Lady, the Virgin Mary to a young peasant girl called Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 and has become a major place of Roman Catholic pilgrimage. It’s estimated that more than 6 million visitors a year visit Lourdes to pray, bathe, or simply gawk at its reputed healing source, queues long every blessed day we were there, rain or shine! The Grotto; whose spring waters from the rock are believed to have miraculous healing properties, for those who believe. The spiritual space is home to several Basilicas including the Main Grotto Basilica, the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, several small chapels and also has an amazingly huge underground concrete bunker of a basilica of St. Pius X, that can hold 30,000, dedicated by Cardinal Roncalli who later in 1958 became Pope John XXIII. Would you believe all this came from our Tour Guide…I recorded it 
It is also a tourist hotspot with over 260 hotels, apparently it has the 2nd largest number of hotels per square kilometer in France second only to Paris. Its next to impossible to find an available room in the summer months of July to end of August in Lourdes unless you booked in advance with a Tour company.
And this is how we got to Lourdes. Almost everyone gets taken up and joins in pre-arranged prayers that carry on all day until after 10pm. Lourdes is quite pedestrian friendly, with many side streets that are strictly pedestrian and which discerning tourists use to find that unique bargain! They visit the Grotto, and Basilicas, they visit the Stations of the Cross up a quite steep rock side and wash in the spring water, which is on tap, almost every pilgrim we saw carried jerrycans full of this water, Amazingly this never spoils or go off!!
On day 1 that afternoon, we gave the public healing baths a go and boy was it freezing. Funny thing is as soon as I got out of that freezing bath, I felt warm like I was cocooned by something otherworldly, I cannot explain it and I cant today explain how that feeling came about after that cold dip! Suffice to say this started our Lourdes experience off to a great start! We joined the throng of tourists to the myriad of shops lining the main Boulevard De la Grotte. This has almost every conceivable religious item, nick-narks, bits & bobs and all kinds of artifacts.
One would be hard pressed to find a shop on this street that does not sell such items, making it for some a little on the religiously tacky side. But then again the local populace must make a living, mustn’t they? A sneak peek at some of our view of Lourdes below:
The accommodations
Like I said, there are over 260 Hotels and B&Bs in Lourdes the best are those situated along the river banks with little cafes which were very well utilized by tourists all day long esp on extremely hot summer days! We stayed at the Helgon. We usually sat outside a sister hotel cafe 2mins away sipping a glass of chilled juice or vino gazing at the peaks of the snow peaked tips of the Pyrenees, listening to the rush of the river go by! It was an exceptionally beautiful view overlooking grassy hills that surround the town of Lourdes, this kind of thing reminds me of Ryan Biddulphs’ lifestyle & blogging from paradise! Our hotel was quite surprisingly comfortable a 4* Hotel, each room a testament to understated luxury that includes a power shower and bath, a writing area , extremely comfy sofa and a little private balcony that looked out over the river, that bed was super comfy! We had our meals as part of the whole package. We did go out for a special meal just the two of us at the New Orleans Café on Rue Sainte-Marie, wonderful food and hospitality! Otherwise the food at our Hotel was gorgeous & more than filling, 4 course meals daily with yummy desserts that left one so full of sweet joy! I now feel like the travel bite blogger 🙂
Creative thinking
The tour leader organized special excursions that were beautifully executed and a perfect opportunity to get to know the other guests and Lourdes as a whole. For example, one day we were taken to where Bernadette spent 2 yrs of her life as a child!
A little village which was so picturesque I wanted to stay there for ever! We sat at the only cafe in the village, eating ice cream, cooling off from the heat and pondering that the villagers actually lived here, in a little piece of heaven!
Even the cows in that village are white with spots of caramel…! From there we went to a picturesque lakeside spot with the calmest blue waters. There were lots of local families having fun on the lake, it was beautiful the image below doesnt do it justice!
I can say it was one of the most spiritually fulfilling experiences we’ve ever had. We returned home in a state of euphoria and hope, felt rejuvenated and restored and that feeling carried on for a long time afterwards.
I doubt that I have done this amazing place justice a lot of the information was what our Pilgrimage Group leader gave us in juicy tit bits. All I can say is; Lourdes is an amazing town, with a spiritual aura that would affect even the most die-hard cynics.
For us it was a spiritual experience that I love to make annually to rejuvenate and feed my spirit. It is a must see pilgrim destination for anyone whatever their religious affiliation. Please enjoy some of our views of Lourdes.
And if you enjoyed Lourdes through my eyes, please drop a comment below! Why not plan your next trip, simply reach out to us, to live this kind of lifestyle. Its all possible with the right connections!
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Your Reminiscing traveler
Admirable devotion, I remember Emile Zola once said in his novel Lourdes: ”Thirty thousand candle lights were burning there, still and ever-revolving, quickening their sparkles under the vast calm heavens where the planets had grown pale.” I tried to write a blog about Lourdes, hope you like it
Wow Steve,
You must have searched hard to find our Lourdes Blog. Can I ask where you found it?
You can share your Lourdes blog with me via our Contact Us Page. I will give you my humble feedback
Julie Syl
It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d without a doubt donate
to this fantastic blog! I suppose for now i’ll settle for book-marking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account.
I look forward to fresh updates and will talk about this website with my
Facebook group. Chat soon!
Ohh well Twanda,
I guess we oblige And add a donate button just for you. You could instead join our group of world travellers as we donate a huge chunk to worthy causes
via our Voluntours and charity events!
Seriously, get in touch and lets get you started donating to Children in need in places lie Guetamala, Karachi, China, Zimbabwe etc!
I remember the time I went to Lourdes. I was 25 years ago. I was overwhelmed about all the pilgrims and shops with the relics.
For years we had a plastic bottle in the shape of Mary filled with the holy water.
It is beautiful place to be.
Thanks for bringing up the memories.
Hi Dirk, I am sure glad you hold wonderful memories of Lourdes. Its on our Must do destinations annually, unless we are otherwise occupied. We have loads of the holy water and Its amazing it never goes off. Its always as fresh as the day we got it. And one would imagine people would pick up all sorts from the public baths. But no one ever does, Really amazing. Thank you.
This place has been on my travel list for a while, but now, thanks to this great article, it has jumped up a looong way up on my list of places to go. Thank you so much for sharing
hey Alex, I can Imagine, it was on our bucket list for years, I dreamt about it since my uncle came back from Lourdes, via Rome & Israel. Its now an annual must visit for us! And we get to go 5* , red carpet, full concierge, Transfers, Insurance all included in the price, I love Network Marketing! How else would we get all these Thanks for your kind comments 🙂
Wow Julie, It sounds like you had a great time, a spiritual experience as well. I love your pictures, absolutely beautiful place! Thanks for sharing your travels and adventures, I can tell your are really passionate! How many of these 5 day trips do take a year?
Hi Robert, thank you. I am passionate! Indeed we are world travelers. We get away every chance we get. If you include trips within UK, i.e. Scotland, Wales and even Ireland then we are talking up to 8 times a yr. all down to the Travel dollars we get. Plus you “get 4 pay no more”, we are traveling for Free literally! Every penny you pay as member comes back directly to you as travel dollars to use on any Dreamtrip, Weekend away, City break, even restaurants and sites! With children, it simply was a no brainer for us. They absolutely love travel and have no worries with any cuisine, their peers think they must be loaded 🙂 I know we are blessed!