the highest focus of light

tour de france stage 18, in brief

If you’ve never been to Lourdes, I don’t recommend going.

For some context, I was raised Catholic in the southern United States, hence I spent a lot of time listening to long stories told by zealous converts about Saint Bernadette and the healing water of the grotto and all those ecstatic visions of the Virgin Mary. Holy Roller evangelicism wore off in …