We headed to the post office first and managed to buy some stamps to send postcards to Australia. They have different stamps to send to different countries so my broken French mustn't have been too bad as we ended up getting what we needed.
Afterwards we headed into town and saw some lovely clothes boutiques and chocolatiers. We went into a patisserie and decided on a vanilla patisierre and a chocolate cheesecake style cake slice. Mum
And I shared these and they were delicious!
We then headed to a village called pau where mum
And I had a terrible time. We ended up at the back of the township for lunch and got lost coming back. We actually ended up on the outskirts of town and were completely lost. I attempted to call our tour director but my phone was playing up so I couldn't get through. After a while he managed to get onto us and after around half an hour on the phone he found us and brought us safely back to the bus. It wouldn't have been that bad if the bus wasn't due to leave that town an hour before we actually got there, and all the other passengers were waiting for us. What also made it worse was that is was freezing and pouring with rain, so we were frozen, sopping wet, and lost in a village in the south of France where not many people speak English and we had no idea if the bus had left without us, as they mentioned they would need to do this of we could not be found.
We then drove to Lourdes where we settled into a hotel which was the worst one to date. After the day we had however a bed was all we were concerned about. Things took a turn for the worst tho, as while I was down at dinner mum had a staff member walk in and head towards our bags, without knocking or letting anyone know he was there. He hauled ass out of there quick smart once he saw mum and she wasn't even sure at first if it actually happened as it was a shock and happened so fast. Luckily she wasn't showering or getting dressed!
After dinner I headed to the basilica and St. Bernadette's grotto where I was able to get some holy water and see the beginning of the candlelight procession to the basilica. There were literally tens of thousands of people there heading to the holy place for some healing and comfort. There were so many wheel chairs that it was spot the person without a chair almost.
After getting the holy water I stood and marveled at the basilica and went to touch the cave and stones where Bernadette first saw the visions of the virgin Mary and was amazed that I was touching a stone that millions of people have touched every year for hundreds of years and will continue to do so for years to come.
Tomorrow we will drive to Biarritz and enter Spain. Hoping our luck changes once we cross the border. Still all in all a great trip so far!!
P.S. I forgot to take my camera to the basilica so will get another tour companion to email me some, silly me xx
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