Today I explored the French side of the Pyrenees mountains as I headed towards Pau. My first stop after a number of hours driving around on tiny roads (thanks Atlas Obscura) was the amazing Gourgue d’Asque. A French valley with forests so lush it was nicknamed "the Small Amazonia of the Pyrenees." It took ages to find, so when I arrived I only had time for a short walk through what seemed like a rainforest somewhere south of the equator. However the drive and the discovery was worth it as the countryside was beautiful.
It was then onto Lourdes which is one of the most-visited Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world as it was the area in which the Virgin Mary appeared to a local peasant girl, who would go on to attain sainthood, but to me was a pretty sad place. It was full of tourist shop selling all sorts of catholic souvenirs and water bottles to collect the supposedly sacred water (but in reality is town water!). I saw some of the biggest candles I have ever seen in my life. The cathedral and grotto are interesting and I did join the queue to rub my hands on what was pretty disgusting dirty black rock in the grotto. I also did drink some of the water (you never know, so I thought it was better to be safe than sorry!!) but the only miracle that occurred was it washed the bandaid off my finger from a cut last week. The town seemed full of very run down hotels and dodgy fast food outlets. But Lourdes receives over 5 million visitors a year so maybe it is a magical place.
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