It was in 2012 my first trip to France,  we visited Lourdes in Southwest France. I heard a lot about Lourdes before my visit, and added Lourdes to our itinerary as I really wanted to see the religiously important place in France. We took a night train from Paris and reached there in the early morning, before 5am I believe. The train journey was comfortable, as we had sleeper berth and slept all the way through.  I believe it was about 6 hours journey from Paris.

Lourdes was an amazing place. When you are in Lourdes, you feel the vibration of the holy land. I understand Lourdes is the second important tourist destination in France after Paris. We took a taxi from station to hotel and it was less than 10mins drive. The hotel was small, and it was not the check-in time, but we hoped that someone would let us in as it was early hour and we were tired and wanted to settle in our room asap. As expected someone noticed us standing outside the entrance and took us in. When I mentioned my name, she straight away gave us the keys and said to go the room and rest and come after 8am to do the paperwork. She hardly spoke English, but explained it in hand gesture. People were that friendly. They didn’t ask any other check in details. Also said the breakfast buffet is from 7-11.

We had booked two rooms as there were 7 of us. Each room had about 4 beds and it was quite cozy and comfortable room. It was a 3 star hotel. But there were facilities to make coffee and tea in the room, where as it was not available at the 5 star hotel we stayed in Paris, and we had to pay for coffee. The staffs were extremely friendly. Very few spoke good English.

After taking a good nap for about 3-4 hours we got ready and went to the reception to provide the check in details. Then again, the staff at the reception said to have breakfast first then to come. The breakfast buffet was not very huge. But it had all what we needed, it felt kind of a homely breakfast. We had freshly baked croissant, baguette with cheese  and egg and cake and coffee on top.  After breakfast we went to the reception again, and they gave us all the information about Lourdes and the bath time and all. We found people were so friendly there, ever ready to help.

After breakfast we went back to our room and relaxed a bit and then headed to explore the area. The place was so amazing. It started to rain while we were walking and we went to a nearly by shop and bought ponchos and I bought an umbrella as well.  There were whole lot of restaurants shops where they sold souvenirs of Lourdes and statutes of  Our Lady of Lourdes and Candles from a tiny size to a huge 7 feet long. The area gives you a good vibe of a holy land. You will see people from all over the world, nuns, pastors or reverends. Also people pushing the disabled and sick people in carts, wheel chairs and stretchers. It melt your heart to see so many sick people coming there with the belief of getting cured. I did hear the story of people miraculously getting cured after the holy bath.

The bath was an interesting experience. We went to have bath after waiting in the queue to reach Grotto and all. There was a massive queue for the bath and i remember waiting more then 2 hours to have our turn. In fact we were the last, and when we had our bath it was past 2pm. It moved slowly.  The priories were given to people come in wheel chair and stretchers, which was perfectly understandable.

The bath was given in rooms which was covered with green curtains. The rooms had tubs at the end with separate sections for male and female. The female section was accommodated by the nuns, There was a small room before each tub, with six chairs – three on each side and hooks to hang your clothes.

Once you get into a small room, the nuns would instruct you swiftly to take off your clothes and to wear the green large cloth like a robe. It wasn’t dry and warm, it was kind of wet and cold. When it’s  your turn, you’d be shoved into this tub with two nuns who are ready to hold your hands from two sides while you step into the tub with the holy water. The icy water hit you as you stepped into the water, one, two, three steps, until the water was up to the waist. There is a small Virgin Mary statue at the head of the tub, which you could touch on to while saying your prayers. We were there in August summer time, but the water was so cold.

After a few seconds, once you give a sign to the nuns that your’ finished the prayers, they both dip you in the water up to the neck, without wetting the head, and then it’s over. When you come out of water another two nuns quickly rap you in another white robe. I remember that too wasn’t dry. Then you can change and go out. Once it’s over, you don’t realize how it happened.  I remember the cloth they wrapped us after the bath too was not dry. There weren’t any other towels or anything, when we change back to our cloth and came out, we were completely dry. For me it was kinda unbelievable.

After the bath when we came out, it was still raining. We were hungry and wanted to have some spicy food. We were told about this Sri Lankan restaurant called “Amma” , so we walked for about 30 mins searching  for this restaurant. It was nearly 4pm, as we were tired and hungry,  it took a while for us to find the restaurant, even though it was quite close to the main basilica.  When we reached there, lunch service has finished and it was closed. But when we said we walked for a long time to find the place and really hungry and longing to have spicy food, they made us sit and took our order. They were really friendly, went out of their way to serve us. This is the beauty of the place. Everyone there is so friendly, ready to help. The food was amazing, on a rainy day warm spicy food of our pallet, we couldn’t ask more.

After having a late lunch we explored the place more, bought souvenir items, and returned to our hotel by 8pm. We gathered in one room, chatted for a while and then went to bed. As we covered most of the place on the previous day, the next day agenda was quite a relaxed one. We had breakfast and boarded a tram for tour ride. It takes you all around Lourdes and stops at all important places.

The 2nd day too we went to the same restaurant to have our favorite lunch.  Again after visiting the main basilica and the grotto 2nd time, we returned to the hotel. We carried some beautiful memories such as exploring the holy place for the 1st time, the unforgettable bath, walking in the rain, the restaurant, and the local wine we had and all, we boarded the train to Paris on the 2nd day night. It was a perfect trip. For me, 2 days were more than enough to experience the holy land.