This years Epic Summer trip

So we ended up on Lourdes for the afternoon. Forecast was terrible so on went all the heavy weather bike gear. Bloody roasting when we got there so off came all the heavy weather biker gear.

They say the sun shines on the righteous so that must have been why :D

Michelle always likes to do this Lourdes tour but I sat most of it out and just watched the faithful from all over the world do their pilgrimage or get wheeled to the Grot to be cured. Its like suddenly being on a different planet. God had the last laugh though as I had some very impure thoughts about a large group of stunning religious young ladies in Uniform as on the way back after a terrific late lunch the heavens opened with "biblical" rain. :D








 
barryd said:
I wasn't looking forward to today. We left Lac Estaing mid morning where it was very wet and miserable and pretty much in the clouds. The choices were either a Camping Car Park Aire (who seem to have taken lots of aires over here) at Agos Vidalos, or one of theirs at Pierrefitte Nestalas or Pierrefart Netflix as I call it which always was cramped even with our old van or up to Cauterets to the two crammed crappy aires there. No real appealing site options or wild spots lower down at least. In the end we opted for the one at Agos Vidalos which so far so good seems ok. Its much lower at about 450m so its a bit warmer and felt warm in the sunshine. Flip flops and shorts back on. Had a right carry on getting through the barrier which is notorious here and had to call the helpline and even then it took another ten minutes. Hardly anyone here and watching the app its not been filling up to capacity. Trouble is there are only so many electric points that work so no doubt when it does start to get busier there will be a dash for them but I've already claimed mine and the layout hopefully means I wont get the usual moron two feet from my window. I don't really like the CCP Aires much but this one so far isn't too bad and at around £13.50 including electric its not expensive and you can use the swimming pool next door at the campsite apparently.

All in all hopefully the best of the three options.

Forecast is still crap but we might have a run into Lourdes to get churched up and get something to eat. Hallelujah! :D

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Thought Lourdes was weird . Also , surely , pretty cynical exploiting these poor souls .
Ex girlfriend who was a doctor used to accompany 2 or 3 tours every years from Ireland . Being a good Catholic girl she didn't take kindly to my criticism of the place .
 
alcam said:
Thought Lourdes was weird . Also , surely , pretty cynical exploiting these poor souls .
Ex girlfriend who was a doctor used to accompany 2 or 3 tours every years from Ireland . Being a good Catholic girl she didn't take kindly to my criticism of the place .
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I know what you mean. I'm never sure what to make of it. Michelle loves a day in Lourdes so I go along with it. I think she is just fascinated with the whole thing and in particular the Bernadette story. If people love their faith and get something out of it all then good for them I guess but you certainly can't help thinking someone or in fact many are getting stinking rich off the back of it all. €1000 for a crappy giant pot statue of Mary probably knocked up in some sweat shop in China? :oops:
 
We drove in last month in the MH, then I got a bit worried as it got a bit busy and narrow, thinking there is a big audience if we get stuck here, but that was really just the number of pedestrians walking in the road, so I followed a coach from then on up to the Basilica and on 'til we were out. My wife (practicing RC) having visited 45 yrs back was disappointed that it has turned into such a circus and was happy to leave without bothering to stop.
 
YeoBlade said:
We drove in last month in the MH, then I got a bit worried as it got a bit busy and narrow, thinking there is a big audience if we get stuck here, but that was really just the number of pedestrians walking in the road, so I followed a coach from then on up to the Basilica and on 'til we were out. My wife (practicing RC) having visited 45 yrs back was disappointed that it has turned into such a circus and was happy to leave without bothering to stop.
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Oddly that road around the Basilica yesterday was full of British motorhomes and other British cars or vans. Maybe some British religious group or something.
 
Il pleut des seaux d'eau!

Worra crappy day. Rained all night and all day so far. A great planning day I think. Looks like we picked the right night to get lashed! :ROFLMAO: This is the first CCP Aire I have actually liked. Plenty of space, not too many vans and longways on parking.

Lots planned now for the next week. Weather permitting. Hopefully back to some proper altitude and views. There clearly is an issue with the barrier here though as there is now a queue of four vans waiting to get out. We won 't leave until Saturday morning though. Cauterets and Pont d'Espagne tomorrow.

I might be very British and go for a swim in the rain later. :D

A few more pics from yesterday















 
Well I don't think I've been on any Aires before with a private swimming pool and Sauna. 😂. Been a delightful day doing naff all but binge watching a new series and having a three hour lunch before going for a swim. The site next door is just chalets and it's dead. Had the pool to myself. Lovely swimming in the open air surrounded by mountains.

The rain finally stopped as well and the sun came out just when I went for a swim. Perhaps God has forgiven me for yesterday. 🤣
 
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