Fight for pole position

Day 50: This morning I set off alone to the shrines of Lourdes. The sun was too strong again to leave the dogs alone in the motorhome. Icke had already seen a lot yesterday, and on my tour I was able to fill the bottles with water from the holy spring. Water Bearer – who better to take on this role than me?

I knew that there were a number of taps near the spring from which you could get water. I had five 1.5 liter bottles with me and figured they would be full in no time. Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that! To say that the water was trickling out of the taps would be a huge exaggeration. You could count the drops. In addition, a large silver button had to be held down for it to even start dripping. After half an hour my first bottle was maybe a quarter full. Then a French woman tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the front of the row of taps. I didn't understand what she said, but what she meant was that the front taps give more water.

So over the next hour I worked my way forward, from the penultimate tap to pole position. And indeed, things went smoothly there. Apparently it really is the case that only the water that bubbles from the spring is released. And that is not unlimited. With the crowds on Sunday, the capacity was exhausted at some point.

Which also applies to my capacities. The fight for water and against the crowds was getting to the point. I needed a coffee. We found a nice little café here that also passes as a restaurant and is actually just a larger snack bar. It's right on the path so I stopped. I had just found a seat outside under a parasol and received my Corado - which is called Noisette here - when a man who was about my age sat down at the table next door. “You had that little coffee yesterday too, right?” he said with a smile, and a conversation developed that I won’t forget for a long time.

I'll tell you about it tomorrow.