8 day Europe with highlight Lourdes

Start Point

Tour start in Lourdes

End Point

Tour ends in Amsterdam

Days

8 days & 7 nights

Price Per Person

EUR 0.00 Twin/EUR 0.00 Single


Tour Description

NOTE: ALL HOLIDAYS ARE CURRENTLY ON REQUEST PLEASE FOR MORE INFORMATIONS OR ( PRIVATE ) DEPARTURES PLEASE  CONTACT OUT CONCIERGE TEAM AT CONCIERGE@ABOVE-5.COM

This tour will be a special departure tour with the focus on home town and visions from Bernadete Soubirous in Lourdes where we visit the cave where Holy Marie appear to Bernadette in South of France and the place where Bernadate is lay to rest in the Monestry of Nevers in the centre of France.

Lourdes is the second most popular tourist city in France. Nestled by the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, this city is the most visited pilgrimage shrine in the Christian world. Pilgrims visiting Lourdes for its healing qualities bathe in pools of water from Bernadette's spring. Everything you will want to feast your eyes upon is in walking distance, and of course there's the castle where you can get a panoramic view of all the beautiful sacred buildings and countryside.

Tour includes : 

03 nights Lourdes - Hotel Panorama

02 nights in Paris - Novotel Paris Vaugirard

02 nights in Amsterdam - Mercure hotel city centre

08 Buffet breakfasts in the hotel

02 lunches at the hotel (day 3 & 4)

07 dinners at the hotel or local restaurant (chinese)

Entrance Vatican Museum + whisppers

Entrance Colosseum in Rome 

Lourdes sanctuaries

Espace Bernadette Soubirous

Seine cruise

Local Guide in Rome 

We have include a meeting with Priest for intenties and blessings on personal need 

Proffesional guide from arrival Airport Rome till Airport in Amsterdam 

For more information regarding te Lourdes tours please contact our concierge team at concierge@above-5.com

Day 1 Arrive in Lourdes ( D )

Place visiting
Arrived in Lourdes free time till afternoon , visit to the explanade of Lourdes , the procession and Visit our Lady of the Rosary.
Description

You have arrived in the Pyrénées and arrive in Lourdes, the global centre of the Marian pilgrimage. You will have an opportunity to see the Basilica perched atop St. Bernadette's Grotto where the young girl have seen visions of the Virgin Mary. on arrival we check in to the hotel and after the dinner we will walk to the Esplanade the holy area where we will find the Grotto where Holy Marie appear for Bernadette, on 11 February 1858. Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary , Basilica of St. Pius X , Église Sainte-Bernadette.

One the first evening we will follow the procession and visit Holy Marie , where we also light a candle and we will visit the Our Lady of the Rosary. This is the church what was built on the rquest from the holy Marie on one of the last visions of the holy Marie to Bernadete, 

Overnight in Lourdes 

 

For more information please contact our concierge@above-5.com or concierge@above5stars.com or chat with us via our website chat !!!

DAY 2 LOURDES ( B, L, D )

Place visiting
Full day city of Lourdes include services and lourdes bath.
Description

Lourdes is the second most popular tourist city in France. Nestled by the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, this city is the most visited pilgrimage shrine in the Christian world. Pilgrims visiting Lourdes for its healing qualities bathe in pools of water from Bernadette's spring. Everything you will want to feast your eyes upon is in walking distance, and of course there's the castle where you can get a panoramic view of all the beautiful sacred buildings and countryside.

  • Take a walking tour of one of the most spiritual places in Europe
  • Discover why Lourdes became a site of pilgrimage 150 years ago
  • See the 3 Basilicas and the Grotto where the Virgin appeared

Enjoy a guided walking tour of the Sanctuary of Lourdes. that takes you through the history of the Marian apparitions that occurred 150 years ago. Visit the 3 Basilicas, the Grotto, and the watertaps, and you have the oppertunity to experience a bath in the holy water what is a experience by it self. 

Lourdes is world-famous for being the 1st French shrine and the 3rd in the world, after the Vatican and Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. On this immersive tour you will travel to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes and let your guide explain the story that changed the destiny of one small Pyrenean town.

Visit the Basilicas of the Immaculate Conception, the Rosary Basilica, and the Underground Basilica. Continue to the Grotto, where the Virgin appeared 18 times to a young girl in 1858.

Whether you are a believer or not, you will be enchanted by the unique atmosphere that makes Lourdes so special and come to understand why 6 million people a year make the journey to the otherwise tranquil town located at the foothills of the Pyrenees.

Overnight in Lourdes 

For more information please contact our concierge@above-5.com or concierge@above5stars.com or chat with us via our website chat !!!

DAY 3 LOURDES - BATRES - GAVARNIE ( B, L, D )

Place visiting
Today other full day in the morning to visit Batres , Afternoon a coach ride to the pyrenees mountian called Gavarnie where we experience still some snow
Description

After breakfast we Leave Lourdes from the Route de Tarbes, and drive through Adé. There you will find Bartrès, hidden in a large corrie. At the exit of Bartrès, you will find on your left the sheep barn and the thick grass where Bernadette used to keep her nanny's sheep.

Take the twisting road to drive back to Lourdes, and contemplate the magnificent panorama of the city, the Lézignan plain and the Pyrenees' chain. At the entrance of Lourdes, take right to the route de Pau and Pontacq to the Lourdes Lake, 

Bartrès, in the footsteps of Bernadette

Discover Bartrès, a little village in the mountains, and its surroundings where Bernadette Soubirou's spent her childhood.

Bernadette first arrived in Bartrès in October 1845, when she was left to her nanny's care. The latter, Marie Lagües, had just lost her son and was looking for an infant to take care of. Bernadette stayed 9 months there then returned shortly to her parents' in Lourdes. She was then brought back to Bartrès where she stayed until she was 21 months old. Later on, she went 2 to 3 times a year to visit her nanny.

In September 1857, she is 13 years old when her nanny, needing her help, asks her to come back to take care of her children and keep a few sheep and cows. Bernadette then went back to her family in 1858, the year the Virgin Mary appeared to her.

From here we have ride up to the pyrenees mountain , where we maybe find snow 

The Cirque de Gavarnie, about 2.5 miles (4 km) south of the village, is described by the 19th-century French writer Victor Hugo as “a mountain and a wall at the same time…the colosseum of nature.” From its floor, glacially eroded rock walls rise to about 5,000 feet (1,500 metres). It has three conspicuous terraces in which precipitous faces are succeeded upward by steep slopes of ice and snow. The Grande Cascade waterfall plunges about 1,400 feet (425 metres) from the eastern side. Above the amphitheatre are the high mountain summits of the Franco-Spanish frontier ridge, rising to nearly 11,000 feet (3,350 metres). Also conspicuous is the deep cleft known as the Brèche de Roland. Nearby is the Grotte Casteret, containing a frozen underground stream. In 2016 the village of Gavarnie was merged with the neighbouring town of Gèdre to form the municipality of Gavarnie-Gèdre , we have also the oppertunity to ride donkey and try the famous farmers pate' , we will also pass by the famous bridge called Pond Espanje one of the bridges connect to Spain. 

On return to Lourdes we will have some rest and dinner before we go to the explanade to join the procession and have a last visit to Grotto 

 

For more information please contact our concierge@above-5.com or concierge@above5stars.com or chat with us via our website chat !!!

DAY 4 LOURDES - NEVERS - PARIS ( L, D )

Place visiting
Passing by the Wine city of France Bordeau , enjoy the senic ride in central France where we visiting the Monestry of Nevers where we see Bernadette of Lourdes.
Description

The story after the death of bernadette in Nevers 

When Mother Vauzou announced to her novices that Bernadette would soon be entering the Convent of St. Gildard, she did not hide her joy at seeing "the eyes which had perceived Our Lady."  We taste some of this delight when we see Bernadette in her shrine. her eyes are closed, but she is there! Intact, that face upon which was reflected the marvelous light of the virginal mystery, the Immaculate Conception. Intact, those lips which conversed with the Virgin Mary. Intact, those hands which guided by the hands of Aquero, painfully scratched the soil of Massabielle and opened for us the miraculous spring of penance. Intact and present, this heart so tender and so strong which beats for the love of Jesus and His Mother, and on their account for all the sinners in the world. Intact, as if she had just gone to sleep, and awaits only the angel's call to rise to her feet. God did not want her to escape totally from our human wretchedness, nor leave her brothers and sisters for whom she gave her life. She is still among us — A. Ravier, S.J.
 

Bernadette in death – 1879

After thirty years undisturbed in the tomb, Sister Marie Bernard's body was exhumed for examination. The cause for sainthood had begun. When the stone was lifted from the vault, the coffin was immediately seen. It was carried to the room prepared for it and placed on two trestles covered with a cloth. On one side was a table covered with a white cloth. The remains of Bernadette were to be placed on this table. The wooden coffin was unscrewed and the lead coffin cut open to reveal the body in a state of perfect preservation. There was not the slightest trace of an unpleasant smell. The Sisters who had buried her thirty years earlier noted only that her hands had fallen slightly to the left. The words of the surgeon and the doctor, who were under oath, speak for themselves:

"The coffin was opened in the presence of the Bishop of Nevers, the mayor of the town, his principal deputy, several canons and ourselves. We noticed no smell. The body was clothed in the habit of Bernadette's order. The habit was damp. Only the face, hands and forearms were uncovered."

"The head was tilted to the left. The face was dull white. The skin clung to the muscles and the muscles adhered to the bones. The eye sockets were covered by the eyelids. The brows were flat on the skin and stuck to the arches above the eyes. The lashes of the right eyelid were stuck to the skin. The nose was dilated and shrunken. The mouth was open slightly and it could be seen that the teeth were still in place. The hands, which were crossed on her breast, were perfectly preserved, as were the nails. The hands still held a rusting rosary. The veins on the forearms stood out."

"Like the hands, the feet were wizened and the toenails were still intact (one of them was torn off when the corpse was washed). When the habits had been removed and the veil lifted from the head, the whole of the shriveled body could be seen, rigid and taut in every limb. It was found that the hair, which had been cut short, was stuck to the head and still attached to the skull, that the ears were in a state of perfect preservation, that the left side of the body was slightly higher than the right from the hip up. The stomach had caved in and was taut like the rest of the body. It sounded like cardboard when struck. The left knee was not as large as the right. The ribs protruded as did the muscles in the limbs."

"So rigid was the body that it could be rolled over and back for washing. The lower parts of the body had turned slightly black. This seems to have been the result of the carbon of which quite large quantities were found in the coffin."

In witness of which we have duly drawn up this present statement in which all is truthfully recorded. Nevers, September 22, 1909, Drs. Ch. David, A. Jourdan

The nuns washed the body, and placed it in a new coffin that was lined with zinc and padded with white silk. In the few hours in which it had been exposed to the air, the body had started turning black. The double coffin was closed, soldered, screwed down and sealed with seven seals. The workmen again returned Bernadette's body to the vault. It was 5.30 p.m. by the time the examination had been completed.

The fact that Bernadette's body was perfectly preserved is not necessarily miraculous. It is well known that corpses decompose to varying degrees in certain kinds of soil and may gradually mummify. However, in the case of Bernadette this mummification is quite astounding. Her illnesses and the state of her body at the time of death, and the humidity in the vault in the chapel of Saint–Joseph (the habit was damp, the rosary rusty and the crucifix had turned green), would all seem to be conducive to the decay of the flesh.

Ten years later, on April 3, 1919, another identification of the body of the venerable Bernadette was mandated.  Doctor Talon and Doctor Comte conducted the examination in the presence of the Bishop of Nevers, the police commissioner, and representatives of the municipalities and church tribunal. Everything was just the same as at the first exhumation. Oaths were sworn, the vault was opened, the body transferred to a new coffin and reburied, all in accordance with canon and civil law. After the doctors had examined the body, they retired alone to separate rooms to write their personal reports without being able to consult each other.

The two reports coincided perfectly with each other and also with Doctors Jourdan and David's report of 1909. There was one new element concerning the state of the body. This was the existence of "patches of mildew and a layer of salt which seems to be calcium salt," and which were probably the result of the body having been washed during the first exhumation.

"When the coffin was opened the body appeared to be absolutely intact and odorless." (Dr. Talon was more specific: "There was no smell of putrefaction and none of those present experienced any discomfort.") The body is practically mummified, covered with patches of mildew and quite a notable layer of salts, which appear to be calcium salts. The skeleton is complete, and it was possible to carry the body to a table without any trouble. The skin has disappeared in some places, but it is still present on most parts of the body. Some of the veins are still visible."

At 5 p.m. that evening the body was reburied in the chapel of Saint–Joseph in the presence of the Bishop, Mother Forestier and the police commissioner. Here are some passages from Doctor Comte's report :

"At the request of the Bishop of Nevers I detached and removed the rear section of the fifth and sixth right ribs as relics; I noted that there was a resistant, hard mass in the thorax, which was the liver covered by the diaphragm. I also took a piece of the diaphragm and the liver beneath it as relics, and can affirm that this organ was in a remarkable state of preservation. I also removed the two patella bones to which the skin clung and which were covered with more clinging calcium matter. Finally, I removed the muscle fragments right and left from the outsides of the thighs. These muscles were also in a very good state of preservation and did not seem to have putrefied at all."

"From this examination I conclude that the body of the Venerable Bernadette is intact, the skeleton is complete, the muscles have atrophied, but are well preserved; only the skin, which has shriveled, seems to have suffered from the effects of the damp in the coffin. It has taken on a grayish tinge and is covered with patches of mildew and quite a large number of crystals and calcium salts, but the body does not seem to have putrefied, nor has any decomposition of the cadaver set in, although this would be expected and normal after such a long period in a vault hollowed out of the earth."

Nevers, April 3, 1919, Dr. Comte

In 1925, the third and final exhumation of the body was conducted. This was the occasion during which relics of the sacred body of Bernadette would be taken. Doctor Comte was again asked to conduct the procedure. Once the surgical part was over, he had the body swathed in bandages leaving only the face and hands free. Bernadette's body was then put back into the coffin, but left uncovered. At this point, a precise imprint of the face was molded so that the firm of Pierre Imans in Paris could make a light wax mask based on the imprints and on some genuine photos. This was common practice for relics in France, as it was feared that although the body was mummified, the blackish tinge to the face and the sunken eyes and nose would make an unpleasant impression on the public. Imprints of the hands were also taken for the presentation of the body. Three years later in 1928, Doctor Comte published a report on the exhumation of the Blessed Bernadette in the second issue of the Bulletin de I'Association medicale de Notre–Dame de Lourdes.

"I would have liked to open the left side of the thorax to take the ribs as relics and then remove the heart which I am certain must have survived. However, as the trunk was slightly supported on the left arm, it would have been rather difficult to try and get at the heart without doing too much noticeable damage. As the Mother Superior had expressed a desire for the Saint's heart to be kept together with the whole body, and as Monsignor the Bishop did not insist, I gave up the idea of opening the left-hand side of the thorax and contented myself with removing the two right ribs which were more accessible."

"What struck me during this examination, of course, was the state of perfect preservation of the skeleton, the fibrous tissues of the muscles (still supple and firm), of the ligaments, and of the skin, and above all the totally unexpected state of the liver after 46 years. One would have thought that this organ, which is basically soft and inclined to crumble, would have decomposed very rapidly or would have hardened to a chalky consistency. Yet, when it was cut it was soft and almost normal in consistency. I pointed this out to those present, remarking that this did not seem to be a natural phenomenon.

A crystal coffin was made for Saint Bernadette's body. She was placed in a chapel in the Church of St. Gildard at the convent in Nevers where she lived for thirteen years. She has remained undisturbed and on view in this chapel since August 3, 1925. The Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction at Nevers are not secretive about the body of St. Bernadette. They welcome visitors, and encourage learning about the life example and messages of their sister saint.

On arrival in Paris we will have a short city tour and dinner and sight seeing on the way back to hotel. 

Overnight in Paris 

 

For more information please contact our concierge@above-5.com or concierge@above5stars.com or chat with us via our website chat !!!

DAY 5 PARIS ( B, D)

Place visiting
Full day City tour of Paris include river seine cruise and all high lights of Paris
Description

Paris the city of light , and the city of shopping , and the endless highlights we go to see , from Arch of triumf and the concord Square to Eifel tour a full spectacle the Frence people say. We visit Mont Matre the highest point of the city and see the notre Dame and Centre Pompedue and muc more , in the afternoon you will have some time for shopping as well in Lafayette or Printem or Rue Honore' and we will enjoy the cruise on the river Seine and much more a busy day today 

 

For more information please contact our concierge@above-5.com or concierge@above5stars.com or chat with us via our website chat !!!

DAY 6 PARIS - BRUSSLES - AMSTERDAM ( B, D )

Place visiting
We will visit La Grand Place in Brussels and the famous maneke Pis , And we will see the windmills and Amsterdam and much more
Description

After breakfast we will leave Paris behind us and drive on to the north through the landscaping where in the second world war the battles has taken place you see every where the cementries who are till today well mentained, we will enter the the country with two official languages Dutch called flemish and French, we will stop near to the Grand place where visit the square and we will visit the statue of maneke pis in English piing boy, Belgium famous for the chocolate and so called be french fries in Belgium called "patat" 

Than we proceed to further to the north via the city of Daimonds called Antwerpen, we will enter Netherland or Holland what meens Low Land or Empty land as the country in below sea level and Schiphol Airport is 9 meters below sea level, Holland is the top ranking country is social wellfare, we will via Rotterdam Driving up to Amsterdam the capital, ones the city with the highest crime now even red light areas are legal and drug to sudden limit is allowed and now one of the savest cities in the world. 

We will have a evening glance of Amsterdam and dinner 

Overnight in Amsterdam 

DAY 7 AMSTERDAM AND VOLENDAM ( B, D)

Place visiting
Full day city tour of Amsterdam and Volendam visit all famous places include Cheese farm and Windmills
Description

After breakfast we will drive through a senic route to the famous fishing village Volendam , where stop by the windmills and we see the cheese farm and wooden shoe factory and we go and try to eat the famous Dutch raw herring  ( typical Dutch fish ) On the way back to Amsterdam we will enjoy a Canal Cruise and we visit a Daimond cutting factory. we will have a walk on Dame Square and Red light erea called Walletjes , 

You will have some free time to walk around and do some last minute shopping and evening have dinner in Restaurant 

 

For more information please contact our concierge@above-5.com or concierge@above5stars.com or chat with us via our website chat !!!

DAY 8 AMSTERDAM END OF THE TOUR

Place visiting
Tour ends in Amsterdam Airport
Description

After breakfast we will sightseeing on the way to Airport for your flight back home. 

From the day the tour started in Rome all the way to Amsterdam you will have sight seeing through Europe more than 3000 KM 

 

WE FROM ABOVE-5.COM HOPE YOU HAVE ENJOYED YOUR HOLIDAY AND RECIEVED YOUR BLESSINGS IN LOURDES AND WE HOPE YOUR PRAYERS WILL BE HEARD  AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO WELCOME AND TO SERVE YOU AGAIN IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

For more information please contact our concierge@above-5.com or concierge@above5stars.com or chat with us via our website chat !!!

THE STORY OF ST. BERNADETTE AND OUR LADY OF LOURDES

Place visiting
.
Description

February 11 is the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes, one of the most famous apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary that took place in southern France. On this day in 1858 a young, poor girl named Bernadette Soubirous was out collecting firewood with her sister and another friend near a grotto when she saw a vision of a lovely lady.

The Grotto of Massabielle in 1858

"The grotto was my heaven" 
Grotto of Massabielle as it appeared in 1858

In the words of St. Bernadette,

“I raised my head and looked towards the grotto. I saw a Lady dressed in white, wearing a white dress, a blue girdle and a yellow rose on each foot, the same color as the chain of her Rosary.”  

In the vision Our Lady was praying the rosary.

Image result for Song of Bernadette

Bernadette reluctantly told her parents of the apparition, and in response they forbade her from going back to the grotto.  A few days later, on February 14th, Bernadette was permitted to return to the grotto, and again the Lady appeared to her.  This happened again on February 18th.  On this third visit the Lady asked Bernadette to come back to the grotto every day for the next two weeks.

At these subsequent visits the Lady (who had not yet identified herself as the Blessed Virgin Mary) asked for a chapel to be built on the grounds, for Bernadette to pray for the conversion of sinners, and for her to drink the spring water that was revealed to her at the grotto.

Word of these apparitions spread rapidly and caused quite a stir in town.  In response, Bernadette was detained, interrogated, and harassed by the civil authorities as if she were a common criminal. The villagers, however, came to her rescue and demanded that the child be released.

Through all these difficulties that came to her because of the apparitions, Bernadette was given an interior strength:

“There was something in me that enabled me to rise above everything.  I was tackled from all sides, but nothing mattered and I was not afraid.”

Many of the townspeople believed that Mary was appearing to Bernadette, and they came down in large numbers to the grotto to pray.  The spring that the Lady asked Bernadette to drink from quickly revealed itself to be blessed water with miraculous healing properties.

On March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation, the Lady appeared at the grotto again, this time identifying herself as the Immaculate Conception.

Image result for vision of virgin mary

“With her two arms hanging down, she raised her eyes and looked up at the sky, and it was then that she told me, joining her hands together now at the height of her breast, that she was the Immaculate Conception. Those were the last words she ever said to me.”

The Marian dogma of the Immaculate Conception had only recently been pronounced by Pope Pius IX a few years previous, on December 8, 1854. This infallibly defined dogma declared that the Blessed Virgin Mary, “from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from every stain of original sin is a doctrine revealed by God and, for this reason, must be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful.”

 Related image

As for herself, Bernadette suffered much, not only through physical suffering due to her chronic poor health, but also through the jealousy and suspicion from others because she was given the grace of visits from the Blessed Mother.  This proved true the words Our Lady spoke to Bernadette at the grotto, “I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the other.”

Four years after Our Lady of Lourdes appeared to St. Bernadette, the local bishop ruled that the apparitions were authentic.  St. Bernadette eventually entered a religious house where she continued to suffer physically, uniting her suffering to Christ, and died at an early age.

Today a beautiful church has been erected on the grounds near the grotto at Lourdes. After Rome and the Holy Land, Lourdes, France is the most popular place of pilgrimage for Catholic faithful. The water of Lourdes is readily available to all pilgrims, and numerous healings have been medically documented to have occurred there, as well as conversions to the faith because of these miracles. St. Bernadette’s feast day is February 18th.

For more information please contact our concierge@above-5.com or concierge@above5stars.com or chat with us via our website chat !!!