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Yeah a rest day! When we went to bed I told Jerry it was in his best interest to let me sleep until I wake up in the morning. I finally got up, according to Jerry, at 10:45, but I felt great. We showered and headed out to see the holy city of Lourdes.

We immediately met some Americans that were sitting at a cafe near our hotel. I always like to stop and talk when we hear English. The mom and daughter were following the Tour and were fans of Lance and Floyd Landis. They were mad because they couldn't stay until the finish in Paris because they had to fly home for a family wedding. They were talking to another couple who were both photographers and had taken some great pictures the day before. We invited them to meet us in Paris on the last day.

Jerry got a call from Bill and Talia so we continued to the Office of Tourism to meet them and shoot some more video for the Travel Channel show. Every town has an office of tourism and they are always marked with signs, so it's a good place to meet. Bill and Talia caught us up on what they had been doing with Gabe, another guy in the documentary, and his group. Talia was not to happy because they had spent the previous two nights in the car before finally getting a hotel in Lourdes!

I got a map of the city and some pamphlets on the tourist sites to decide what we wanted to do. Our first stop was the local castle/fort. You could see it from anywhere in the city because it's up on a hill and the city looks like it was built around it. It was not so easy to find the entrance to it as we wandered around before making our way up the steep stone walkway.

There was a graveyard in the lower section that had headstones and a really pretty garden a little further up. The castle/fort had been turned into a museum housing artifacts, but all of the info was in French, so we just strolled around and looked. The top tower had a great view of the city in every direction, so we took several pictures. Next was my favorite part - The Gift Shop! I got a neat foldout book and some vintage looking postcards.

Chris Brewer called and he and Kathy, his girlfriend were almost to the city. They had planned on meeting us and spending the day sight seeing. We waited at the castle for them as they took the tour, then met us to look for lunch! We stopped at a sidewalk cafe and had some pizza, salad and frites (french fries). I love sitting outside and watching all the people walk past that had made their pilgrimage to Lourdes.

After lunch we shopped in the little stores. Bob Roll once called this the Las Vegas for Catholics, but since I've never been to Las Vegas it reminds me of a religious New Orleans with all the shops lining Bourbon Street. We bought little plastic Virgin Mary bottles. The crown screws off her head so you can fill her with holy water from the Grotte where Bernadette saw the virgin Mary.