Not si, oui!

Monday 14^th April

We have been back on the road 2 days and covering the south west corner of France.

Yesterday we travelled from El Pont de Suert in Spain to Lourdes in France. The road travelled north through the mountains towards a snow covered mountain. As we looked like running out of road we entered a 5k tunnel that passed under the mountain. 

Where does the road go?

Very impressive tunnel - we went through a lot of
other smaller tunnels as we crossed
the top of Spain

Driving along we spotted an old cathedral perched high on a hill. Time for a detour to have a look but we weren’t able to go into the church as a service was happening as we were there – Palm Sunday we realised.  So we sat in the sun and had coffee and cake instead. One week in Spain and 'si' is stuck in my brain - I need to retrain it to use 'oui'. We arrived in Lourdes at lunchtime and were able to check in to our hotel – another up market hotel (better than the cheap chain ones we have got used to). We had a window that opens and a real shower screen.

Another beautiful church -
no this is not a church tour of France

An interesting sculpture with wisteria in flower.
 When we headed out of France just over a week ago
there were only small signs of spring.
Now we are back and the weather is better and a lot more in flower.

Lourdes is famous for the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes said to have occurred in a grotto in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous. Before that time there was just a castle but now Lourdes has become a major place of catholic pilgrimage and sees about 5 million tourists a year. It has the second greatest number of hotels per square kilometre in France after Paris.

Looking down the main street headed to the Grotte

This was what the main street was all about

There were 2 major events yesterday – Palm Sunday and the start of Frat celebrations. I’ve googled Frat and it is like an organised pilgrimage for young students around 15 – 18. There were thousands of them there in lots of different groups. There was an outdoor mass happening and we joined the queue of people to go through the grotto. It was quite amazing to see the number of people there.

Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral

The grotto - all these people were there for the service.
Meanwhile there was a queue of people who snaked through the grotto.
We joined the queue.

Lots of groups of young people here for FRAT. All the groups identified themselves by wearing the same scarf, or hat, or jumper, or....

The photo doesn't do it justice but this is actually a mosaic inside the cathedral and there are more than a dozen of them.

A back view of the cathedral

Lourdes former claim to fame

One night in Lourdes and then we moved on again, this time to Bayonne which is on the coast in the far south of France. The drive first took us along the foot of the France side of the Pyrenees. Mostly farmland as we followed a river valley. Eventually we had to turn more northward and lost sight of the mountains. We tried to stay off the main roads but used them for a while to try and cover the miles. We stopped along the way for lunch in a small village – just the bakery we could see. 

A small chapel which was part of a larger estate

This old castle along the way - 15something

Right next to Bayonne is Biarritz which is sort of like Surfers or Torquay. A beach holiday resort with a beach (not up to our standard), surfing and lots of touristy shops. We wandered the esplanade walk and enjoyed the fresh sea air. Not a lot of surfing happening – they seemed to be waiting forever for just the right wave.

The sun is out - sunnies, and we might have to
break out the 'summer' suitcase

Not up to Aussie beach standard - very coarse sand

Called Virgin Rock - Napolean III used this as
the start of the sea wall

The fishing port - too early for a seafood dinner

Warm enough for sun-bathing.

More about French dogs – they are everywhere. I’m not talking about stray dogs, but the family pet. Going down the beach for a coffee – take Fido too. Tour of the castle – take Fido there too. Going away for the weekend – take Fido. Some hotels allow dogs and they cost an extra 3 or so Euro per night. We haven’t seen too many beggars in our recent travels but back in Paris and Lyon there were beggars on the street and they all seemed to have a dog.

Tonight we have gone back to our cheap chain hotel, but they feel like home now – they are all the same. We had originally planned 2 nights here but have changed our plans and are heading up the coast to a less popular (we hope) spot for our 2 nights.