Bartrès...

Wednesday morning was the nicest one we had weather-wise, though it was a little breezy. This was very good news, as it was the morning we were due to go to Bartrès. We were so fortunate to have Mass in the parish church there. It was all the more poignant for me to realise that St. Bernadette would have recognised the church as it was - the one in Lourdes burned down and was rebuilt in a slightly different location, and the Crypt of the Immaculate Conception basilica (just above the Grotto) had only just been built when St. Bernadette left Lourdes to join the convent at Nevers, so she never saw the other chapels there.

I took a few photos, but not during Mass, as I was leading the singing, and manipulating a camera and various bits of music at the same time is not a skill I possess...

At the end of Mass, Fr. Tim brought out a sample of St. Bernadette's handwriting exercises...

...and we were able to venerate a relic of St. Bernadette...

Something I hadn't spotted on previous visits to Bartrès (despite it being bang smack in the middle of the graveyard) - the grave of Marie Lagües, the foster-mother of St. Bernadette.

St. Bernadette's own mother couldn't breastfeed her due to burns to her breasts in an accident with a candle. Marie Lagües had just lost her own baby, and so agreed to act as wetnurse for a small fee - the family were reasonably well-off at this point.

Later, when the family became destitute and St. Bernadette's health took a turn for the worse, it was decided that she should go to live in the relatively healthier air of Bartrès, where, in return for looking after the sheep and helping with her foster-mother's children, St. Bernadette would be taught her catechism, learn to read and write and be fed a better diet. In fact, due to her tiredness after her day's work and her ill health, St. Bernadette found learning very difficult, and Marie Lagües was not a patient tutor, so the bargain wasn't kept. When the parish priest at Bartrès left to join a monastery, St. Bernadette decided that she would be better off back with her family. Shortly after her return, she saw Our Lady for the first time.

The Lagües' family house has been preserved as a museum, and St. Bernadette's little cot-bed can be seen...

The photos of the interior aren't as clear as I'd like because the room is behind glass - presumably to deter relic-hunters from denuding the place!

I had planned to allow time in Bartrès after Mass for lunch and exploration of the museum and surrounding area. There was, I'd noted last year, a nice little café / restaurant which looked like it would be good. Alas, the best-laid plans of mice and men, and all that... The museum was only one room (and a gift-shop) and it closed at 12noon for a two-hour lunch-break. Fortunately we'd had plenty of time to see the room before Mass. Then, rather embarrassingly for me (as organiser), it transpired that Wednesday was the chef's day off, and no food was available...

My fellow pilgrims were very understanding, and didn't utter a single word of reproach. The grandmother of the group had packed supplies, and several families wandered off to explore the surrounding area - I believe they did find somewhere that did food. I went for the easy option, and chose to stay for a glass of lager, safe in the knowledge that I'd be able to enjoy a late lunch back in Lourdes. Nevertheless, I was completely flummoxed by this!

The café owner had probably noted that Wednesday was his quietest day - most pilgrimage groups attend the Wednesday morning International Mass and then return to their hotels for lunch. To be fair, he explained that, should we wish to arrange a visit in future, he'd give the chef a different day off that week...

No-One Goes On Processions Any More...

It is, after all, not done any more, not by "thinking" Catholics (like the ones who read The Suppository, aka The Bitter Pill.)

On the way to the start of the (not very popular) procession...

And then, by this point, we hadn't actually started the rosary...

It's when you meet the people at the start of the procession coming back after walking right around the Domaine that you realise that quite a few people do, actually, still go on processions... and remember that we were in the front end of the middle section...

My knee was playing up because of the damp weather, so I went and sat down at the outskirts of the procession, which wasn't the best position from which to take photos...

Each of those little dots of light is a separate candle, and lots of people didn't have candles...

And, at the end...

Fr. Tim has one of the most impressive photos of the (non-existent) procession on his Flickr page...

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...

Modern Technology...

"Father Gadget" (as he used to be known by some of the teenagers in the parish) spotted a rather cool gadget in the airport Duty-Free section. Yes, I know it's no longer "Duty-Free" since the EU abolished it, but I don't know what else to call the consumer-fest section located between Security and the Boarding Gate.

Anyway, this particular gadget - an accessory for his mobile phone - caused quite a stir amongst some of the other passengers on the flight to Toulouse, especially when he stopped to take a call...

Meeting Old Friends (& New Ones)

I didn't have access to a computer whilst in Lourdes, and anyway, it was probably good for me not to be blogging continuously... at least, that is what I kept telling myself. I resisted the temptation to hunt out a cyber café, and only used the hotel's free wifi (only available in the bar area) to check my emails. Anyway, blogging by phone is just irritating, as the formatting is stupid...

I did take a few photos. I didn't take as many as I'd intended, because, quite frankly, the weather was dreadful - cold and wet. We had two nice mornings - the Wednesday, when we went to Bartrès (though it was cold) and the Friday (as we were preparing to leave.) But photos really lose something in bad weather.

Lourdes this year was an opportunity to meet (and make) friends. On the Monday evening, I was greeted by an old friend from my London Faith Forum days. Ira had moved to the diocese of Birmingham, and was on night duties in the hospital for the Birmingham pilgrimage. She's on the left of the photo. Delia (a regular at Blackfen) had joined us for part of the pilgrimage, as she was going off to meet cousins in the South of France later in the week. And, before you ask, Fr. Charles Briggs hadn't gotten around to changing into his cassock after the journey, though he did wear it for the rest of the week...

I had the uncanny experience on the Tuesday lunchtime of a young man approaching me as I tucked into my magret de canard in one of the local cafés: "Excuse me, are you Mac McLernon? I read your blog...!" ...and then, just as I was trying to figure out how he could possibly have known who I was, when I wasn't even wearing a mantilla, he admitted that he had seen me at the Faith Summer Conferences in the past. It turned out that Andrew Gardner, as he introduced himself (I knew he'd looked familiar, but I'm useless at remembering names) was on the Middlesbrough Diocese pilgrimage as a helper.

Crouchback (aka Jim) and his Lady Letitia (Christina) had indicated, in an earlier post of mine, that they were making the pilgrimage to Lourdes and hoped to meet up with us for Mass each day. I was delighted to meet them properly - we'd chatted briefly at one of the London blognics at the Buckingham Arms in Petty France. Coincidentally, they'd been returning from Lourdes back then! I discovered that Jim's nom de blog was a reference to something written by Evelyn Waugh - and after Christina's recommendation, I think that I really must read some of Waugh's work; my education is sorely lacking in this respect!

I shall post a selection of pictures over the next few days.

The Wanderer Returns...

I arrived home a short while ago. Now, having greeted (and, more importantly, fed) Furretti and Miaowrini, and having unpacked the suitcase, I am just checking a few blogs before crawling, exhausted, into bed.

But I just want to have a little smirk...

...Just a little one...

I made disparaging remarks in a previous post that cast aspersions on the apparently "non-bio" biometric passport I had to pay an exorbitant amount for last Saturday.

I have completely changed my views.

I arrived at Passport Control at Heathrow Terminal Five this evening, feeling rather tired and irritable, and observed the hordes queuing. I then spotted a small sign which suggested that anyone with a certain chip-type symbol on the front of their passport could go through the automatic scanner.

There wasn't a queue for this scanner.

I checked my passport. It had the chip-type symbol on the front. I gleefully marched to the completely queue-less empty booth, stood on the yellow feet marked on the floor, pushed my passport through a slot and stared at the camera. That camera was a lot more friendly than the official who had originally checked my ear-less photo. The message came up that I passed muster, and I was through.

I'm afraid that I couldn't resist waving at some of my fellow pilgrims who were still queuing...

Our Last Morning In Lourdes...

All good things must come to an end...

We finish with Mass in the St. Gabriel Chapel once again, this time at 10:30am, so we all have time to pack our bags. Our coach is due to leave the hotel at around 1:30pm so there will be a little time for last-minute rosary purchases...

All being well, we should be back in Blackfen by about 9pm.

I wonder if the kitties have brought me any presents...

Pilgrims' Progress...

Today will be another fairly gentle day, although there's a fair bit of walking involved.

We'll start off with Mass in the Crypt of the Lourdes parish church. It's another Missa Cantata - well, today is the Feast of the Ascension in the EF calendar (and shortly to be reinstated in the OF calendar if rumours I hear are true!) and the acoustics in the Crypt are spine-tinglingly good, so it seems a shame not to sing a bit...

In the afternoon we'll join the Blessed Sacrament procession, which starts at 5pm, and then finish up with the torchlight procession at 9pm.

Bernadette In Bartrès...

St. Bernadette spent quite a bit of time in Bartrès, first as a baby (when her mother was unable to nurse her, due to an accident) and then just before the Apparitions, when Bernadette worked as a shepherdess. It was the departure of the priest at Bartrès to a monastery which prompted Bernadette's return to Lourdes, because she realised that she would never be able to make her First Holy Communion there.

We will be having Mass in the parish church at 11am - a Missa Cantata, though we're a little short on singers this year. Still, I'm sure we'll manage!

At 4pm we plan to join the recitation of the Rosary at the Grotto, followed by the blessing of children - Fr. Tim has done this in previous years. Then, at 5:15pm, we'll split into two groups for the Stations of the Cross. The more energetic and agile pilgrims will head off to the high stations on the Espelugues Hill, while those of us who are somewhat more fragile will content ourselves with following the lower stations on the far side of the Gave.

Once again, everything finishes off with the torchlight procession.