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19.07.08 Saturday.
In Lourdes a true rest day no forward progress.
Woke late, got breakfast with jam bread Croissant and coffee, and were joined by Graham and George.
We then meandered slowly into Lourdes and had lunch before Graham & George went back up north to Bergerac. Lourdes is the ultimate tourist trap (the French Blackpool?) and although we had been through it before we had never walked its streets, an experience. It is full of people from all catholic countries - both officials in the faith and members - many of whom are disabled in some way and being helped by others, and one presumes hoping for another miracle or at least an alleviation of their condition. The cathedral is large and ornate and outsized for the small Pyrenean town that it stands in above the river Adour. It is full of tacky souvenir and gift shops, selling everything from a Madonna in a snowstorm to a plastic water container with a Lourdes logo on the side. (To be filled from the taps producing Holy water at the side of the Grotte).
The weather is very hot and Betsy is wilting as befits an Irish rose. Jane is equally hot, but it’s such a pleasant change to be so after the long, cool summer we have had in England! We have also been shopping for replacement walking shoes for the Spanish part of the trip; the boots are nearly finished and have been repaired several times. We intend to carry much less weight in Spain relying on the pilgrim hostels and so we can use light weight trek shoes instead of boots.
Later in the afternoon it was time to attend to our hairdressing needs, Tony is the only pilgrim to bring out his personal hairdresser to France for a haircut and beard removal (no more catching spiders webs while walking through forests), Jane: It is not a professional job(!!), but at least he will be cooler. We could have stuffed a cushion with the hair that was taken off him.
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