"The Village of St. Bernadette" was written at the end of a week long visit to the Occitan town of Lourdes, site of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes commemorating the 1858 visions of Bernadette Soubirous. "I wrote the song on the back of an airmail letter," Parker said, "while...waiting [at Tarbes–Lourdes–Pyrénées Airport] for [the] plane...to Paris".