Mere/Fille Vacance Day 13 (Sept 22) - Lisieux

 Wow are we both tired.

I'll first start off by talking about what we did today, and then a little story about Covid that made us both laugh. You'll see what I mean.

We got up, had one last huge breakfast with Colette, left her a note and money for the stay (which she messaged me today and said that she wasn't expecting that and was thinking we'd just stay for free...like I said: she wasn't going to accept money, but there you go. I'll reply back later, telling her how we wouldn't feel right at all without giving her a little something. And we didn't leave that much.), and road with her to the train station.

For the record, the train to Lisieux is the only one that had people coming around and scanning tickets...well, the only one so far. We'll see what happens tomorrow evening when we take the train from Lisieux to Paris. It is just interesting to both Mom and me. 

We arrived in Lisieux and took a taxi to our hotel. It 9 euros and about a 3 mile walk up hill. No way were we walking three miles to the hotel with luggage. 

Thankfully, we could check in early and didn't have to wait at all when we got there. We went up to our room and had some water and rested for maybe an hour. Then we set off to find St. Terese. 

We walked all the way from the hotel to the Basilica...well, actually, we walked uphill past the Basilica because we couldn't find how to get in. Mom got all her activity and steps today, though. 

For the record, I looked up on Google Maps how to get to the Basilica and it said "mostly flat" walk. Yeah. Mostly flat, my arse. And I am now mostly dead. Chocolate, please. (no, actually. No chocolate. We ate too much at dinner.)

So, we couldn't find the door or any way onto the property. Up the hill we went. And I should've realized we were going the wrong way because we saw the back of the basilica. So, kilometers later, we found this bureau office where I, in broken & exhausted French, asked a woman how to get to the basilica. She basically told us to go back the way we came and to the left. Makes perfect sense. Go around the other way to get to the front door, you dumb Americans.

When we finally made it to the front door:

Inside the basilica:

 

Saint Pope John Paul II plaque. I'm too tired to translate. Maybe later.

 

Stained glass. Always beautiful

To the right, there is a huge alcove? Section that is dedicated to St. Terese. We bought a candle and lit it and said some prayers.

Each little chapel around the church was dedicated to a country with their patron saint(s). Above the alter is usually two stations of the cross. 

The chapel dedicated to America (Our patron saint is the Immaculate Conception, if you didn't know):

Each chapel also had the country's corresponding flag:

The back of the basilica:

So, we got to the basilica really tired, sore, and sweaty. I took some pictures, sat down and rested, we went and lit our candle, we walked around and I took more pictures, and then we went outside (walking down all those steps again) to go to the gift shop. Really, we weren't that impressed. There were a lot of books, but all in French, some medals, key chains, rosaries, French movies about saints, post cards, and rose candles. It was a decent souvenir shop, but nothing struck our interest or was anything we felt we absolutely needed.

By this time of the day, I realized that it was past 1400 (2pm) and I hadn't eaten or drank anything since breakfast. I had a headache and felt sick. But we wanted to go to Mass, so up we went into the basilica again. And, I have to be honest, I struggled to stay awake the entire time. I haven't a clue what the readings were, let alone what the homily was about. I was only really awake during the Liturgy of the Eucharist, so I guess that's something. 

After Mass, Mom and I decided to walk towards town. She forgot, though, that the French restaurants and cafes close from 1400 or 1430 until dinner, so nothing was open. We followed the blue line on the street to Carmel, though, and went in to see what they had about St. Terese. It was interesting. Then we went into the visitor' chapel and sat down by the statue of St. Terese and her relic. Just so you know, St. Terese is not incorrupt. And I didn't feel that it was approprate to take pictures inside. 

But here's the outside of the chapel at Carmel:

Then we decided to go find out how to get on the bus back to the hotel. There's another failure with Google: Google claims that there are not any buses in Lisieux. Lies. We asked the lady at the hotel and she told us to take Line 1 back from the town center. But...she didn't say whether we could pay on the bus or what stop we should get off at. We had to go to the Tourist Office to find out where to buy a bus ticket. Finding the bus ticket office, I then found out that a ticket at that office would be for 10 trips. Ahhh...no. I don't feel like paying for 10 trips when I only need one. Fortunately, in Lisieux, you can actually pay for the bus right when you get on it. So: not in Paris, but in Lisieux. Good to know. And it's only 1 euro for one trip. And the girl at the bus office was helpful enough to tell me which stop we needed to get off at. The French have been so helpful and real troopers after I ask them in French to please speak in English if I can't keep up with them.

Back at the hotel, we had some much needed water and some downtime before the hotel restaurant would open for dinner. 

And then I checked my email...

Oh My Gosh Why?

Let's talk about Covid. 

Backstory time!

Okay, so before we even left the States to get over here, I found several articles claiming that we needed the European Health Pass to get into restaurants, hotels, museums, public transportation...basically anywhere except the grocery store, pharmacy, and maybe bakeries. So, I got the official site and had to give them a picture of my Covid CDC card showing that I had two vaccine shots, a picture of my passport, and a pdf showing my plane tickets to and from France. Fine. Whatever. (And I did it for Mom too, just so you know). The system emailed me back saying that they would automatically send me the QR code to put in my phone app to be the Health Pass in 7 business days. 

Ahhhh frick. 7 business days meant that we wouldn't have a pass until Sunday or Monday after we arrived. So, in my mind, we had to go to the pharmacy right when we arrived in Paris to get a Covid test and a QR code (which would only last us 3 days), which would cost money. 

And then 7 days turned into 11 really fast.

And then when we got to France, we met a tour guide with the same tour company we were using and she told us that we only needed our CDC cards. Thank goodness.

And then, when we met the other tourists on our tour, we found that they also couldn't get their cards. Our tour guide then told us that the system handing out QR codes for the health pass to tourists broke. Fabulous.

So, tonight, at 6pm, I got two emails...I got our Health QR passes. In Lisieux. Three days before we are leaving. 

Ha ha ha ha ha. 

Thank you, Health Officals of France. So helpful.

Again, thank Goodness that we really didn't need them. There was only one restaurant in Paris that insisted we have them, so we just left and didn't eat there. 

What a frustrating experience.

Pray that nothing goes wrong and we can be home soon.

By the way, we are both getting really tired of traveling and living out of a suitcase. I think we are both getting homesick. We're really glad we came, but when it's time to go home it's time to go home.

Missing all of you!

A plus tard, mes amis. 

Talk to y'all again in Paris tomorrow night.