Pic du Midi Misfortune

Starting at before 6A, my guest and company had a day trip planned today to take a train to Lourdes, then a bus to Bagnères-de-Bigorre, then another bus to La Mongie to catch two cablecars to reach the top of Pic du Midi to see a 360° bird’s eye view of all the Pyrénées from an observational outpost.

However, once we reached Bagnères-de-Bigorre and waited for the second bus for over two hours to La Mongie, which never arrived, after more research we discovered that the final bus was no longer operating for the season. Le sigh. There were no other options to get out to the liftoff of the cablecars to reach the mountain top, so we decided to take a loss and bag the excursion.

Instead we decided to get some breakfast and putzed around the town of Bagnères-de-Bigorre all morning which we found very charming with a gorgeous mountainous backdrop, and I took some lovely photographs, until it was time to head back this afternoon.

So my entourage boarded another bus back to Lourdes for their initial introduction to the hub bub of Catholic kitsch and French religious miracles. After seeing the magnificent monolith that is the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, and me falling face down in the middle of the cathedral surrounded by onlookers, we all headed back to the train station again and returned home to Pau, exhausted and disappointed, but somewhat tempered by the decent day popping around both Bagnères-de-Bigorre and Lourdes. Despite my bruised knees and bad back, it ended up a nice day anyway.

Check out the photos.