My Favourite Hotel...

I always think that this hotel foyer looks as if it is straight out of an Agatha Christie novel. I half expect to see a body draped artistically at the bottom of the stairs, or a police-type chalk outline on the floor.

Patrick and Sylvie Bonsom make a wonderful brother-and-sister team running the Grand Hotel d'Angleterre at Lourdes. Sylvie's husband is the chef, I think. One of their employees, Odette, has been Night Duty Porter for all the years we have been staying there. And when they were younger, we'd see a couple of children (I never figured out whose) doing homework at one of the tables in the afternoons. It's a superb hotel, with a friendly atmosphere. It's also about as close to the Grotto as you can get without pitching a tent in the field next to the Hemicycle!

The black arrow on the left shows the entrance to the hotel... the one on the right shows the St. Joseph's Gate, one of the main entrances to the Domaine and the quickest way to the Grotto.

I've already booked the hotel for our pilgrimage next year...