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.

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 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 hotel.

It's a simple little hotel on the corner of a quiet street. The rooms are spotless and inexpen
sive. 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.  

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 with hopes of seeing them again.