But now the town’s peace is being shattered by thousands of British tourists whose behaviour has become so bad that officials have brought in riot police. The decision to deploy officers from the notorious Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS) came after local gendarmes admitted that they were unable to cope with the nightly excesses of British visitors who, after going to the famous shrine, take to the town’s bars and clubs.
"We are carrying out late- night patrols because of the threat to public order caused by increasing numbers of night-time drinkers," a spokesman for the CRS said.
"The local gendarmes cannot cope with all the trouble, and the situation has been getting out of hand. The British are particularly fond of their drink and have been some of the worst offenders. There have been numerous complaints about their behaviour, and it cannot be tolerated."
In Lourdes’s busy streets, there is plenty of evidence of alcohol-fuelled exuberance in the town’s numerous bars and clubs.
At Bar Angelus, a few hundred yards from the shrine, bare-chested men, and women wearing skimpy tops and crucifixes, swayed to the blaring music including Madonna’s Like A Virgin and Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones.
"We come here to party after being reverential all day," said Susan Clare, a 19-year-old student from south London.
I am thinking this is not what Fr. Stan had in mind by "A Catholic party don’t stop…."
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