Day 07 of 14. Wednesday of Oct 2007.

On the second day at Lourdes, we had Mark, an American tour guide, led the group around the back side of town away from the basilica. The walk started with the Accueils, built in 1800s, where the sick from all over the world resided here and assigned with a caretaker, seen with sisters of St Clara Order from Italy, or other uniform volunteers in various organization. We crossed the river into of alleys to get to various sites. We stopped at the grave site first where the Soubirous were buried. The grave lot kept the all family members in one site, now looking over the congested city of Lourdes.

We kept walking to the old Prison, Cachot—a lockup place of an old jail abandoned in 1824. This was the later year of 1857, the Soubirous financially went broke, and down at the bottom of a living sink hole. The room exhibited the six family members crowding together in one place, with one window.

The last stop was the family house in the early years with the old Mill, a two story building, 1843-1854. There were more exhibits of the family history at this site, including the high society of Lourdes contrasting the rich and poor, where the Soubirous and among others clung on at the bottom of life.

We walked back into the basilica ground, not too far from the Mill house. The entire walk could be several miles round trip from our hotel, a block from the basilica.


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