Lourdes

The Grotto, the basilicas and the torchlight procession at Lourdes

A single long day is enough for the Sanctuary of Lourdes. Visit the Grotto of Massabielle soon after the gates open at 5am, then the Rosary Basilica and the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. Join the 5pm Eucharistic procession or see Bernadette's birthplace and the Cachot in town, and from April to October finish with the 9pm torchlight procession.

Early morning. Be at the Grotto of Massabielle soon after the gates open at 5am, when the line past the rock moves quickly and the river beside it is the loudest sound. Fill a bottle at the spring taps, then look at the Esplanade du Rosaire before the crowds arrive.

Mid-morning. Climb the ramps to the Rosary Basilica, whose dome and Byzantine-style mosaics show the mysteries of the Rosary around the nave, and then to the crypt and the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception above it, with its 70 m spire.

Afternoon. Join the 5pm Eucharistic procession, led by sick pilgrims, which ends with the blessing of the sick in the underground Basilica of St Pius X, a concrete hall for 25,000 people, or leave the Sanctuary by the Porte Saint-Michel and cross into town. Bernadette's story is told in two small houses: the Moulin de Boly, where she was born, and the Cachot, the former jail cell where her destitute family lived in 1858. Finish at the Château fort on its rock for the Pyrenean Museum and the view.

Evening. Buy a candle with a paper shield before dusk. From April to October the torchlight procession leaves from near the Grotto at 9pm and circles the esplanade as each language group takes its turn with the Ave Maria.

Garbure, Tarbais beans and Bigorre pork in Lourdes

Eat at least one meal outside your Lourdes hotel to taste Hautes-Pyrénées food. Order garbure, a thick soup of cabbage, beans and confit duck or pork made with haricots tarbais, along with porc noir de Bigorre charcuterie and gâteau à la broche. The old town around Rue Basse and Place du Marcadal has the most local restaurants.

Most pilgrims eat half-board in their hotel, and the menus are plain and repetitive. It pays to break out at least once and eat what the Hautes-Pyrénées valleys eat.

Start with garbure, the mountain soup of cabbage, beans and confit duck or pork, thick enough to stand a spoon in. The beans in it should be haricots tarbais, the large white beans grown on the plain around Tarbes, which also go into local cassoulet. Porc noir de Bigorre, from a black pig breed raised outdoors on the Pyrenean foothills, appears as cured ham and charcuterie, and lamb from the high pastures of Barèges and Gavarnie turns up in spring and summer. Sheep's cheese from the valleys is sold at the covered market, Les Halles, near Place du Champ Commun, and the gâteau à la broche, a spit-roasted cake with spiky layers, is the local celebration cake.

Where to eat? The old town around Rue Basse and Place du Marcadal has the most local restaurants, alongside a Tibetan place on Rue des Quatre Frères Soulas known for its momos. Avoid the set menus on Boulevard de la Grotte, which are aimed at groups. Bars are few: this is an early-to-bed town, and alcohol is drunk with dinner more than after it.

Pilgrimage dates in Lourdes and Pyrenees day trips

The daily processions in Lourdes run from April to October, and the largest crowds come for 11 February, Easter week, the International Military Pilgrimage in May and the Assumption on 15 August. Rain is heavy all year and heaviest in April. On a dry day, the Cirque de Gavarnie is about an hour's drive south.

Lourdes sits right against the mountains, and the weather shows it. Rain is heavy and spread over the year: April averages about 150 mm and November nearly as much, while July is the driest month at around 83 mm. Summers are warm, with highs of about 26C, and January days still reach around 11C, though nights drop close to freezing.

The pilgrimage calendar shapes the crowds more than the weather. The season of daily processions runs from April to October. The feast of the first apparition on 11 February, Easter week, the International Military Pilgrimage in May and, above all, the Assumption on 15 August bring the biggest gatherings, when hotels fill weeks in advance.

On a dry day, go up into the mountains. The Cirque de Gavarnie, a curved wall of limestone over a thousand metres high with a long waterfall pouring down it, is about an hour's drive south, then an easy walk of about an hour and a half from the village. The Pont d'Espagne, above Cauterets, has waterfalls and forest paths leading to the Lac de Gaube. With clear skies, the cable car from La Mongie to the observatory on the Pic du Midi de Bigorre gives a view along the whole Pyrenean chain. Closer to town, the Grottes de Bétharram cave system lies about 15 km west, and the Lac de Lourdes is a quiet place for a walk.