The balades of Lourdes

When Hélène asked if I would like a ballad, all I could think of was a sweaty Meatloaf professing with all his heart that he wouldn't do that.

Luckily, Hélène's balades are a tad different, although be prepared to get a little bit sweaty.

Over the last 17 years, she has been taking visitors up to the Pic du Jer to see the stunning views of Lourdes - her great-grandfather would have had similar views when he was quarrying stone. Today, I've been kindly allowed to tag along with a party from TotalEnergies who are on a team-building day.

And as we all took pictures, Hélène explained not just what we were looking at but how it came to be as we see it today.

From the glaciers that gouged out the valleys and lakes to the subsequent flow of the Gave, water has been fundamental to the town's existence and changed the course of its history.

Before the mid-19th Century, it was just an old town with a fortress on the river Gave, controlling the pass between the fertile plains and the Pyrenees. That all changed when the Immaculate Conception told Bernadette Soubirous about the healing power of the waters.

Now, around five million people come to Lourdes each year and a trip up to the nearby Pic du Jer on the funicular railway is a nice excursion for many pilgrims.

We were taken to a door in the hill - an entrance to a string of caves to see how water has and is continuing to change the very ground on which we were standing. Little by little, water dissolves the limestone, eroding the Pic from within and creating the passages we were walking through.

When the caves were explored and further dug out in the 1950s, bones were found - evidence that humans had been here for millennia. Early visitors to the caves started to notice human-like patterns in the rocks and particularly on the stalactites and stalagmites -  It's funny how we anthropomorphise things and look for meaning in random places.

It also exposed the uplifted and folded strata that Hélène was keen to show with a roll of the arms, demonstrating the dual actions of the African and Iberian plates creating and shaping the Pyrenees. Geography (and it's CAMRA card-holding cousin, geology) isn't boring when you can actually see it in action.

After re-emerging into the dazzling sunshine, we made the short climb up to the peak of the Pic upon which a huge neon cross has been erected which lights up at night for the faithful down in Lourdes.

It's also a chance to glance down at the intriguing valleys leading to Les Angles and Castelloubon which form part of the repertoire of Les balades d'Hélène. Hélène takes groups out on walks in the valleys, lakes and forests that surround Lourdes, offering different routes depending on the season and weather. When it's hot why not take to the forests, the lake or paddle in a stream? Some days are great for foraging - and perhaps a picnic en-route?

It's also a chance to bump into other locals and have a chat, which might be a fisherman hoping for trout or when I was with her, we came across Hélène's cousin playing pétanque.

So I had a question.

What makes a walk a balade?

Helene pondered on how to explain, but before she answered, she stopped us all in our tracks.

'Juniper!' and we all stopped and crowded around the spikey little shrub as she explained the finer details of this ancient plant - the key botanical in gin.

And then I realised what a balade is - it's walking without purpose, but every intent to see what's around you.

If you would like to join Helene on one of her walks, you can get in touch with her on her Facebook page or email her.