Attention, it’s not a clickbait title and we mean every bit of the enthusiasm we will express in this article about the most unexpected destination we have ever chosen for our travels – Lourdes.

For those, who don’t know, Xavier was born in South-West of France, which means that twice a year we pay a visit to the family in Toulouse and occasionally in Pau and Biarritz. This year, we arranged to spend the New Year weekend in Pyrenees with our friends, but before the due date, we had a couple of free days to spare. How exactly the idea to spend these days in Lourdes appeared the was approved – I can’t really remember, but suddenly here we were – in the train crossing the frosted meadows in direction to what would turn out as a truly surreal (in a good way) weekend.

I won’t be surprised if you didn’t even know about the existence of this town, however, it’s in top-3 of the most visited cities of France, and, therefore, of Europe. The difference is that it’s not a touristy place in the regular meaning of this term, because the reason people go to Lourdes is… religious pilgrimage. Indeed, the Sanctuary of Lourdes is one of the most important site of international Catholic pilgrimage after Rome and the Holy Land. And what is even more astonishing is that in France only Paris has a bigger capacity of accommodation than Lourdes, as the latter hosts millions of pilgrims every year.

All this is due to a 14 y.o. girl from Lourdes, Bernadette Soubirous, who in the end of 19^th century saw an apparition of the Virgin in the local cave Massabielle. Then another one and another one.

The unfolding of this story is easy to guess, Bernadette was canonized, the gorgeous multilayered Sanctuary was built, and since 1858 around 7000 people claim to have been healed thanks to the divine power of the place, even though only 69 were acknowledged as miraculous ones by the Catholic Church.

Well, to sum everything up, this is the last place one would see two pragmatic atheists spend their weekend between Christmas and the New Year’s Day.

The town of Lourdes itself is also very pretty, we enjoyed very much walking on its hilly streets. Before the apparitions turned Lourdes to a pilgrimage center, it used to be famous for its medieval fortress, now hosting a museum about the region.

Still, a bit of cycling is always a good idea, thus, we rented two electric bikes from Bike & Py (lazy asses got scared of getting sweaty in December!) and cycled on the Green Track – a cycling track in other words, until Argèles-Gazost following the Gave de Pau river.

The ride was pleasant and chilly, however, we both agreed that the weather didn’t allow it to be as picturesque as it probably is with different conditions. It wasn’t a fluffy white winter, so all we could see around were naked trees with mountain picks. There is a certain charm in that too, but at least not the one we were hoping for.

Naturally, we were ecstatic to get back to Lourdes, curl with a mug of hot tea in the armchair of our extravagant hotel and snooze holding a book in our hands.