Lourdes

My visit to Lourdes was for the main purpose of watching the Tour de France and cycling some of Frances most beautiful countryside. However, there’s so much more to Lourdes than just its location. I took an afternoon to wander around the famous Catholic centre based around Le Grotte.

The Office de Tourisme Website provides this history of Lourdes;

The Gauls, Romans, Barbarians and Moors successively fortified the rock of Lourdes, Where the Château-Fort castle stands.

In the 17th century, Bigorre's unification with France (1607) meant that the citadel became less important.

It came through the French Revolution (1789) without too much damage, and Became an agreeable small town year in the 19th century. In the early 1850s, the castle was occupied by an infantry garrison. Back then, the town was just a stopping place for spa visitors, who were attracted by the water at Barèges, Cauterets, Luz-Saint-Sauveur and Bagneres de Bigorre. Lourdes was only the administrative center of a modest canton of inhabitants 4135.

Among them were Francois and Louise Soubirous, at Boly mill who lived for 10 years with their children, the eldest of whom was named Marie Bernard, also known as Bernadette (born on 7 January 1844).

In 1854, the Soubirous family became destitute when Francois lost eye during a work accident, and was accused of theft and put in prison, and the windmill went bankrupt. Eventually cholera killed 38 people in Lourdes. Bernadette, who suffered from cholera and tuberculosis, remained sensitive all her Life.

On 11 February 1858, Bernadette’s sister Toinette and a friend Jeanne Abadie, went to look for wood in a cellar, called Massabielle, set beside the Gave. While Toinette and Jeanne gathered wood, Bernadette heard a noise like a gust of wind. Lifting her head, she saw, in the hollow of a rock, a small lady, bathed in light, looking at her and smiling.

This was the first apparition of Mary, which would be followed by 17 more.

For Nearly 150 years, Lourdes has-been welcoming pilgrims and over 6 million visitors EACH year.

From April to October, Mass can be celebrated in all languages ​​at 22 places of worship. You can also expect big celebrations such as the International Mass, the Eucharistic procession in the afternoon and the torch procession bed Marian every evening.

From November to March, Many celebrations also take place Every day, such as mass, the Rosary, the Angelus ...

French Food

There’s two main reasons for my absence from blogging this week – I'm having too much fun enjoying the fun of cycling in France with a group of friends, and I’m eating too much yummy food – staying out late at night to enjoy the atmosphere. (also, I’m spending so much time reading all the Paris in July blogs).

One dish I thought I would post about know is the Cassoulet – a stew type dish, popular here in the south of France. We first tasted one in Carcassonne, and then again in Lourdes at the ‘Maison de Cassoulet’. I cant say I find it an attractive dish, but both have been quiet tasty, and proving to be great cycling food.

I did a little research and found that there history of the Csssoulet is a little blurry....

One website said: The origin of Cassoulet is a little obscure. Some say it is an Arab dish, others says it was created in Castelnaudary in the 14th and 15th centuries during the Hundred Years' war. But whatever its origin, it's one of the most delicious and satisfying of all French provincial dishes. It is a slow simmered casserole made primarily of white (haricot) beans plus meat but never chicken or fish.

The three famous recipes are Cassoulet de Castelnaudary which is made with pork as the main meat, Cassoulet de Toulouse, which sometimes has the addition of lamb and always Toulouse sausages and Cassoulet de Carcassonne which sometimes has the addition of partridge during the season. Goose or Duck Confit is also often used in the preparation of this dish.

There are many variations, some have more of this than that or some of this and none of that, but whatever the ingredients, the principals remain the same. More beans than meat, cooked in the oven for a very long time during which time the crust which will form should broken several times.

While another said - “The cassoulet is indisputably native to Castelnaudary. A certain Bringuier perfected the recipe, under rather indefinite circumstances. It is made with fresh pork, ham or pork knuckle, some sausage meat and fresh bacon rind. In Carcassonne, they add a shortened leg of mutton and, in the hunting season, a partridge. In Toulouse, in addition to these basic ingredients, they add some breast of pork, country sausage, mutton and especially preserved goose or duck (confit d’oie ou de canard). As for beans, they consider beans from Cazères and from Pamiers the best, not to mention the white beans from Alsace.

Le Cassoulet de Castelnaudary

800 grams dried white beans, coarse salt, 500 grams boneless lamb shoulder, 250 grams boneless pork shoulder, 125 grams fresh pork belly, butter, or good-quality fat, 10 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped, water, freshly ground black pepper, 200 grams plain, fresh pork sausage, 300 grams fully cooked garlic sausages6, 500 grams tomatoes, or 4 tablespoons tomato paste, 75 grams fresh bread crumbs

1 & 2. Soak the beans for a few hours or overnight. Drain the beans and place them in a saucepan along with salted, cold water. Bring to a simmer and cook until the beans are about half cooked, about 30 minutes.

3. In the meantime, cut the lamb and the two types of pork into 3-centimeter cubes. Brown the meats, in batches, in butter or good quality fat in a large saucepan.

4. Drain the beans and add these to the meat along with the garlic. Add enough water to the saucepan to barely cover everything. Season with salt and pepper. Bring the saucepan to a boil, lower heat to simmer, cover the pan, and cook for about 2-1/2 hours. Add additional hot water during the cooking if the contents appear dry.

5. Poach the fresh pork sausage in barely simmering water for about 20 minutes, drain, and cut into thick slices.

6. Cut the garlic sausage into thick slices.

7. If using fresh tomatoes, peel, core, seed, and chop them. Cook the tomatoes in a little oil in a saucepan over medium heat until reduced to a thick puree.

8. Preheat oven to 180 °C.

9. Place the beans with the meats and sausage slices into an ovenproof, earthenware dish. Mix in the tomato puree. Level the surface. Sprinkle the top with bread crumbs. Place the dish in the oven and bake until the top is brown and the beans are bubbling, about 1 hour.

10. Serve the cassoulet directly from the baking dish.

The above recipe, when served with bread and maybe a salad on the side, is sufficient for 6 to 8 diners. But what if you only want to prepare cassoulet for two? If we deconstruct the above recipe, we see that the completed dish is simply cooked meats in cooked white beans flavored with tomatoes and finished with a baked crust of bread crumbs. Thus it becomes possible to prepare individual cassoulets. The following example is for two portions.

Carcassonne

Bonjour! I appologise for my absence - the trip wee're on at the moment is frantic in its schedule - but only because we're fitting in so much fun! while I am in Lourdes today, I wanted to post about my weekend in Carcassonne. I'll do a Lourdes post soon. Meanwhile, if anyone is interested in hearing about our 'Tour de France' trip, one of our guides is keeping a blog - so visit Pete's site for more regular updates and great photos.

Carcassonne is a medieval city in the south of France. It's been the subject of many books, but the author I know best is Kate Moss. So while wandering about the city I was invisaging the events of the Cathars war and stories from her novel 'Labyrinth'. I am constantly in awe at just how old these towns are, the history and the stories that these roads could tell..... I spent quite alot of the weekend 'imagining'.

A highlight of the weekend for me was going to see the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing in the old amphitheatre of the castle. We had a fantastic night, enjoying Mozart, in the open air, watching the stars come out. Just purely magical!

The history of Carcassonne is embedded with religion, politics and wars. It's complex and deep. I cant even summarise it here. But every street we walked through took us down another pathway to more stories.

Despite there being loads of other tourists here, we had a thoroughly enjoyable time, and found the locals incredible welcoming and friendly.

We arrived in Paris on Wednesday after a 24 hour flight from Sydney. All the romantic idea’s I had of Paris, and “mon rendez-vous avec elle”, return to me as the Pilot is reporting our decent into Paris and CDG. After a chaotic final few weeks in preparation for this trip, I had forgotten what it was that I was planning, i.e. a rendez-vous avec Paris and a vacance in France. All that I was hoping for come wafting back as the wheels hit the tarmac – but I wasn’t as ready for the culture shock, the force-field of Paris.

My partner, also exhausted, was having trouble hearing my mumbled directions and our passage through the Gare de Nord was an experience far from the romantic visions I had for my rendez-vous. However it wasn’t long before our luggage and bodies were safely installed in our minature Parisienne Chambre. After a short rest and shower, my partner decided to keep us awake until dark. Mais, Quelle probeme! It is dark until after 1030pm and we had already been awake for some 20 hours.

As we walked around our ‘Quartier’, Le Marais, the real romance of Paris began wafting across our paths. Cafe’s with sidewalk tables and red & white wicker chairs, their TV’s playing the Tour De France, Persiennes and their dogs returning home with their baguettes and bottle of wine, scooters, smart cars, bicycles, patisseries and boulangeries tempting us with their scent of fresh bread or sweet flavours of croissants’ au chocolat!

Sadly, I had to be in meetings most of our first day in Paris , however when they were finished, my partner and I walked through Paris, meandering with no real plans. This walk was relaxing, and at the same time rewarding. We felt confident with our knowledge of the city, and yet constantly surprised by unique discoveries – the architecture, the gardens, the lane ways – and what I love the most – the sneaky peak inside those big wooden doors into secret court yards and private gardens. At one stage I was completely surprised to look up above me and see the Eifel Tower peaking over the buildings around me. It really is awesome just how that Tower is ever present in Paris.

After 2 days in the hussle’n’bussle of Paris, in all her glory, we were on the train to the south, the Languedoc region. But we’ll return to Paris many times during our holiday, the next time being for the finale of the Tour de France (to see Australia’s own, Cadel Evans, on the podium!)

I apologise that this post is a little later that I had hoped, but travelling and finding Wifi is still a challenge. I tried to post this yesterday but lost the internet connection and then lost the blog. I have a second blog planned for Monday as tonight we are going to see a concert inside the walls of a medieval castle!