Pre Camino

Lourdes
8 April

We woke this morning to see snow had covered more of the surrounding hills during the night which explains why it was so cold out last night. Today was spent exploring Lourdes, wandering up and down the narrow streets and a visit to the Chateau Fort which sits on a rocky outcrop above the town. It's rich history dating from the times of the Gauls and the Romans. We also visited the birthplace of Bernadette Soubirous at Moulin de Roly, a grain mill, and saw how the family lived until Bernadette was 10 years old. Drizzle settled in late afternoon.

We woke to find that snow had fallen during the night.

 On our walk we found our first Camino sign

 One of the narrow streets we discovered

 A view from the Chateau Fort

 And another

 Jeff looking down on the town of Lourdes

 Another narrow street

Beautiful spring blossom

 The kitchen in the Soubirous house

 Looking back up to the Chateau Fort

We adopted a pizzeria as our local. The restauranteur was a larger than life Italian. He was  very friendly and very loud with his greetings to all his customers but he was also very volatile. He took offense  to something one of his customers said and saw him off with rapid fire Italian and chased the customer up the street!