Pilgrims return to Lourdes, after pandemic reshuffles local economy

Françoise Steff, heir to the Viron photography company, has an unusual knack for finding out the number of pilgrims coming to the Lourdes shrine: she checks the size of her photos. “Look at the ones from Brescia [in northern Italy]. The dimensions are 25 x 40 centimeters, while normally they are 25 × 55. Groups are coming back, especially French ones, but they’re taking up less space in front of the lens.” Ms. Steff, whose great-grandfather photographed the young Bernadette Soubirous (the miller’s daughter whose visions led to the founding of the sanctuary at Lourdes) a century and a half ago, is above all a businesswoman: “As there are fewer people in the picture, they can see themselves more easily, so they buy more copies.”

Françoise Steff, manager of the Viron photo store, in Lourdes, on August 8, 2022. MATTHIEU RONDEL / HANSLUCAS FOR “LE MONDE”

Her carefully handwritten spiral notebooks have borne witness to the collapse of organized pilgrimages during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019, there were 15,000 photos; in 2020, 400; this year, as of August 10: 6,500. Business has picked up again, so much so that the national pilgrimage on the Assumption weekend is expected to be the largest gathering in three years, marked by the return of the buses and white pilgrims trains. Prayer intentions sent by mail and YouTube masses are no substitute, pilgrims say, for an in-person experience, moments of empathy and physical communion. Lourdes is a low-cost spiritual journey, sometimes just 50 euros including full board – like at the misnamed Hotel Corona, located on the Rue du Calvaire.

However, the town’s golden hours seem light years away. In the streets of the lower town, one can spot more bicycle wheels than wheelchairs. On Monday, August 8, at the time of the morning mass in front of the Massabielle Grotto, a hundred or so sick people and their companions were taking communion, under the Virgin Mary’s gaze and a blazing sun. A few diocesan banners could be seen. The pews were crowded, and only the small circles traced on the ground, without occupants, reminded us of the era of social distancing. If we noticed them, it was only because the esplanade was far from full.

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Of all the French tourist hotspots, Lourdes is the one that is recovering the slowest from the Covid-19 crisis. The shrine’s management has estimated that attendance in 2022 will be much lower than in 2019 (3.5 million visitors). Organized pilgrimages have been halved, while individual visitors and small groups are on the upswing. The Italians and Spaniards have returned, but they’re still waiting for the Irish, English, Polish and South American pilgrims.

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