Lourdes, in the south of France

I camped in a very nice campground out in the countryside just south of Normandy. I hate to gross anyone out, but I really wanted to show you the urinals in the campground.

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but they are outside (and not all that well secluded from anyone who might take a passing interest in what a man is doing.

 



They are there at the end of the row of sinks where people wash their dinner dishes in the campground. I guess I am a typical sheltered American, but I have a hard time getting used to such things. I remember once years ago at a castle in England when a girl who was about 20 years old carried on a not-at-all-embarrassed conversation with me right beside me as I carried on with the job at hand. I found it very hard to relax, I can tell you.

I have been riding Odysseus, my Vstrom 650, through southwestern France. There has been absolutely nothing to take a picture of or to report. It looked and felt like Kentucky. Part of the ride was through a big forest, but the forest was actually field after field of evergreen trees in all stages of growth: some just planted, some half grown, some mature but very small. I think maybe they were grown for paper pulp because none of them were big enough to become building lumber.

Just as I was coming into Bordeaux on a big, super highway filled with rush hour traffic, it started pouring rain. I had my gps, which I depend on so much, in a zip-lock bag, but it got wet and now has a pale, distorted display. Worse, my daughter's camera, which I had in an outside pocket of my riding jacket, also got soaked. Now it doesn't work at all. I am hoping it is the battery, but I don't have any way of checking it out.

I got to Lourdes, which is right at the start of the Pyrenees Mountains, and had just a terrible time finding the hotel I had booked (It was still raining too much to camp). The streets here are narrow, and often one way, and filled huge buses that dump off tourists who walk right down the middle of the street. It was challenging riding.

I had booked a hotel, sight unseen, through an online agency when I found out it was going to be raining when I got to Lourdes. I had a terrible time finding the hotel, and when I did a sign on the door said they were closed and customers should go to the Hotel Solitude a short way away. There, they had not heard of me and had no clue about my reservation, but I showed them the internet record of it on my cell phone. They were gracious, and gave me the room at the price I had booked it for ($45.00 per night), but I could tell from how posh the hotel was I was getting a bargain. It turned out that the room I got normally went for three times that amount.

Do you know the story of Lourdes? It goes something like this: In the middle of the 1800's, a young, sickly, illiterate girl named Bernadette Soubrious was gathering firewood at this grotto in the picture below, when she saw a vision of the Virgin Mary. She went on seeing the vision for two weeks, and attracted both the ire of the local sheriff and church elders, and the interest of the town's people.

Maybe you've seen an image of Bernadette holding a candle, her hands around the flame. When she was not in pain or even burned, everyone became convinced that she was indeed seeing Mary. And, when Mary told her to scrape away some dirt and a spring of water bubble up, they had no doubts left at all.

I went into the grotto. The spring is still there. People have been healed by the waters of the spring. Now those waters flow out through taps where the faithful can bottle it and take it home.

You can also light a prayer candle if you want to.

People come from all over the planet to be cured at Lourdes: people in wheel chairs; people on crutches; people with severe birth abnormalities. I kept thinking: There, but for God, go I.

Lourdes is the second most visited city in France. It is right behind Paris. Does it work? Are there people who are cured? I don't know, but I guess there is nothing lost in trying.

 There are many grand churches built up around the story of Bernadette. One of the most impressive is underground. And church services seem to go on endlessly.

Unfortunately, there is the commercial side of Lourdes: dozens of hotels; hundreds of cafes; thousands of tacky souvenir stores.

 

I wanted to get away from it all; it was a little too much for me. So I went up into the mountains overlooking the town.

These slugs were all over the place up there. Who but a biology teacher would want to bore you with a picture of a slug?

 

You know you are ready to get back into the mountains when you start taking pictures of slugs. Odysseus has been patiently waiting for me in the garage under the hotel. Time to head out exploring the mountains tomorrow.

 

More later,

Ron







From the beaches of Normandy

 

I was driving down the country lanes in Wales when I went around a curve and was greeted by this scene.

 

I'm loving Wales. It is hilly and curvy and absolutely beautiful. I can't much understand the people, even though they are obviously speaking English, but everyone I meet is as friendly as my old Grandpa Sam.

I camped up on a cliff at a very nice campground and watched the sun set into the Irish Sea.  It was a gorgeous place to spend the night after my supper of stew and lettuce salad

 

It was just as pretty in the morning. An oatmeal breakfast and time to get back on the road.

 



One of the beautiful national parks in Wales is the Brecon Beacons. I road through this with my wife on our bicycles years ago, and what a difficult ride it was. I'm glad to have 650 cc's of power under me this time.

Part of these hills is open range for Welsh ponies and sheep. I didn't see any of the ponies, but the sheep are everywhere.

What do you think of this windmill. Someone lives in it. Won't see many of these in Wales.

Around noon I was back in England in the town of Portsmouth.

From here I want to take the ferry to Le Havre, France. It doesn't leave until 11 pm though. Gotta find some way to kill about 10 hours.

I decided to visit the docks. There are some fine old sailing ships docked here. I just love sailing ships.

This next ship if the HMS Victory. Do you know the story of this ship? It was Admiral Nelson's flagship, and it was on it the Nelson was shot and killed by an enemy rifleman at the Battle of Trafalgar. That is a famous battle; one of the most important in naval history.

I had a good time exploring the Victory. I learned a few things. For example, did you know that the "Seat of Easement" (the Toilet) was always at the head or the ship, and that it emptied into canvas tubes that carried the wastes down to the ocean.

This is a "monkey". Its job is to hold cannon balls.  I asked if they were ever made of brass, but I found out only the army used monkeys made of brass.

The army stacked their cannon balls on the brass monkey in a pyramid shape. You might be interested in knowing that brass shrinks when it gets cold. When it was cold enough, and the brass shrank enough, the cannon balls would fall off the monkey. Thus the saying:------ (You thought it was something else, didn't you. Be honest now.

 

Finally it was time to head for the ferry to France. There were dozens of motorcycle riders there.

 

 

We all took our motorcycles into the deepest bowels of the ship. And then we climbed up and up to the lounge area. There were some reclining chairs up there, but it was sure hard getting much sleep. It was fun talking with the other motorcycle riders though.









The ferry got to France at 8 am the next morning. I headed down along the coast of Normandy. DDay was exactly 69 years ago today.

First though, before looking at WWII scenes, I had to take a picture of two of some scenes in Normandy.

You have to be hard-hearted if the scenes of DDay do not bring a tear to your eye. Especially the cemeteries.

I am dead tired from lack of sleep, so I am going to crawl into my tiny tent and get some sleep. Tomorrow I think I will head toward the south of France. Lots of things down that-a-way I've never seen. Lourdes, for example. Until next time then---

Ron