“I’m sorry, but this is impossible”

Today I was told that it would be impossible to get from Paris to Lourdes in under 24 hours. Not once or twice, but six times.

Michael and I left our hotel in Paris at 5:40AM hoping to catch the 6:30 train to Lourdes. When we arrived at the train station, there were massive crowds gathered around the ticket offices. The French workers are still on strike and have caused transportation to come to a stand still. The 5 trains headed to Lourdes were canceled until Sunday. When we finally made it up to the ticket booth, we were told it would be impossible to travel to Lourdes today. There was only one train leaving for the south of France for the entire day, and it was already over booked. The women behind the counter suggested that we just hop on that train and hope to talk to the conductor.

Not only was every seat taken, but every available space to stand was taken up by another body. We rode what seemed like to be a clown car for five hours to Toulouse. This beautiful town was much closer to Lourdes than Paris, yet it was still several hours away. We once again went to the ticket offices and explained our situation. Here we were also told that we would not be able to go anywhere else for the day. We talked to multiple workers as their English abilities varied greatly. Finally, we were able to workout a series of busses and trains to get from Toulouse to Lourdes before sun down.

We bought our tickets and ran the gauntlet of transportation. Around 9 pm we arrived in Lourdes to a beautiful sunset. We found a hostel very close to the main shrine and stumbled upon the nightly rosary procession. After praying in front of the grotto, we returned to our hostel for the night.

At the time I am writing this I have not been in Lourdes for more than 3 hours, but I can surely say it is one of the most beautiful cities I have every visited.

– Luke