On the Road ... Tour de France

Like Atlantic City, without the gambling 

Each year during the Tour de France, I can't wait to get to Lourdes. A lot folks who go to the Tour despise the small city in the country's southwest corner, and there are plenty of reasons to hate it. It's a place where visitors worldwide flock in an endless convoy of tourist buses. They hope for divine intervention. It's where the vision of Bernadette is located and it's where retail shops sell cheap trinkets depicting holy symbols. It's a place of desperation. Lourdes is a little like Atlantic City without gambling. Most years, though, Lourdes is a convenient city between at least two race stages in the Pyrenees. And it's where for six or seven years I've stayed at Hotel Cazaux. The owner, Marie Bernadette Cazaux, was born in the hotel. Her friend, Elena, a retired teacher, works there part-time. I consider them friends and during my Tour de France tenure, I've received Christmas cards from the two women. It's a simple little hotel on the corner of a quiet street. The rooms are spotless and inexpensive. Parking is available for free in front of the hotel. There's a laundry three doors away and an open-air market across the street. I've walked to the same Chinese restaurant, owned by a Vietnamese family, a half-dozen times. I stayed at Hotel Cazaux last night and when I arrived, Marie Bernadette Cazaux was waiting for me in front of the hotel at 11:05 p.m. I had Chinese food at the same restaurant last night at midnight. Marie Bernadette Cazaux always says she speaks English poorly, but she speaks better English than I do French and we communicate just fine. I'm staying at Hotel Cazaux again tonight. It's 45 minutes from Pau, the finish of the 10th stage Wednesday. I'll say goodbye to Marie Bernadette Cazaux and Elena tomorrow morning. And I can only hope to visit them again. — James Raia

posted by dave kellogg at 6:15 PM

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