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France - Day Nine

Day nine:

 We began this morning bright and early greeted with a spectacular view from the Basilica. 
We were treated to a private Mass in St. Anne's Chapel concelebrated by Fr. Tony and Fr. Jim. 
After Mass, we met our guide Caterina for our morning walking tour of Lourdes. 
Much of our tour centered around the places of importance to St. Bernadette including the Grotto where she experienced apparitions of a "young lady" 18 times from the 11th of February through the 16th of  July in 1858. 
We toured the  Basilica of the Immaculate Conception as well as the Basilica of St. Pius X before heading into town where we toured Bernadette's birthplace, the Boly Mill, a comfortable living space where Bernadette's family lived until she was ten years old. 
Her family soon ran into bankruptcy and their social status declined to the point where they moved into a one-room basement, formerly used as a jail, called le cachot, "the dungeon". 
This is where her family lived when the Virgin Mary appeared to her in the Grotto.  

 After completing our three-hour sightseeing tour of Lourdes, we were free to explore the city.  We even had three members of our group partake in the healing bath of Lourdes. 
We reconvened back at our hotel for a farewell gathering before our last group dinner together.

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