Lourdes, France

While in Pamplona, we took a day trip to Lourdes, France. This is perhaps one of the most famous pilgrimage sites, right after Fatima (Portugal) and Guadalupe (Mexico City), with 4-6 million visitors each year.  In 1858 the Virgin Mary appeared to a young girl named Bernadette (now St. Bernadette) on this spot and revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception. From Pamplona, it's a three hour drive by car and as we quickly found out, you can really only get there by car (not bus, train, etc). A friend of Martha's at Navarra did us the huge favor of lending us her car for 4 days (with 3 car seats to boot!) and this made it possible to visit Lourdes.

The town is basically in the middle of nowhere in the south of France. Nestled in the middle of hilly green pastures, you would drive right by it if it weren't for the fact that it now has a magnificent church to house all of its pilgrims (seen above). The day we went it was really overcast and gray, but we still found ourselves in the middle of sizeable crowds of people. It was very moving to see the endless numbers of sick, handicapped, and elderly people who come to Lourdes to be healed by the miraculous waters. When the Virgin Mary appeard to Bernadette, she was asked to dig at the spot of the apparition and a spring of water came forth. Thus, many still come to bathe in this water in hopes of a cure.

The Sanctuary Basilica is adjacent to the river and from this spot you can also see a fortified castle (in the picture above) on a nearby hill called Chateau Fort de Lourdes from the 11th and 12th centuries.

We were pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful mosaic of another famous apparition: Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Mexico City. In the picture above, the kids and I are in front of the exact spot were Our Lady appeared. As you can see, they have placed an image of the Virgin Mary as she appeard to Bernadette in the little niche in the side of the mountain.  It is surreal to pass through there and to know you're on sacred ground! The kids were very impressed and we all enjoyed the trip.

On the way back to Pamplona, we stopped in St. Jean de Luz -a beach town just a few minutes from the border with Spain. If any of you have been to San Sebastian, this would be considered its French counterpart. I don't know what it is about kids and beaches, but they were just meant to go together. Although we were not equipped to go to the beach that day, the kids stripped down and enjoyed romping around in the water. That's it for this post, next up: Olite and Artajona!

The University of Navarra

 

Hello friends! After another break, we're back. The month of August turned out to be packed with trips, which made it virtually impossible to keep the blog up-to-date. However, now that school is a week away and all three munchkins will be attending, I hope to have some extra time on my hands (for once!) to tell you guys where we've been.

As you can see from the picture above, one of the highlights of the trip to Pamplona in early August was touring the University of Navarra, founded by St. Josemaria Escriva (whose statue is above). Because Martha works with Admissions, we got a behind-the-scenes tour of several places that are not typically open to the public, such as the old-fashioned train car that's installed in the basement of the Central Building as well as the replica of a ship captain's chamber (seen below).

From the Central Building we walked to the new and fabulous School of Economics Building, which was only completed a few months ago (below).

Each School has its own oratory, which made it fun to compare and contrast the various styles and sizes that the University has employed to give each a different flavor. The common denominator with all of these is always good taste.

 

 

Then we went to the School of Communications Building (below, left), which is known as "fcom". Many people are suprised to find that most of the campus has modern-style buildings.

 

In the afternoon we walked around the historical center of Pamplona. Because it is one of the cities that sits on the northern route of the Camino de Santiago (the famous Pilgrimage trail that ends in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia), we saw numbers of backpackers walking through town. It's easy to tell that they are pilgrims because they all hang a white shell on their packs. The city marks the Camino de Santiago with shell emblems along the street, and part of the way intersects with the street Estafeta, which is where the bulls run through every July on their way to the Plaza de Toros.

Above: Tita and the kids at the Ayuntamiento (Town hall); right: a shot of the Cathedral;

As you can imagine, Estafeta street lies at the heart of the city and is packed with people, delicious food ("pinchos"), tourists and shops. Above we did a little renactment of the running of the bulls with Antonio playing the part of the runner and Francisco as the fierce bull chasing him!

Pamplona's strategic location on the northern border made it an ideal fortress city to keep out French invaders. As such, the city's identity is strongly rooted in its fortifications, and particularly in the Citadel which sits in the center of the city.

Picture above: the crew keeping watch at the "Media Luna" (Half-Moon) fortification.

And finally, I'll throw in some cute pictures of the kids during the trip.