Fly in to Paris and take the train to Lourdes on the same day?

The fastest trains are 5 and 1/2 hours from Paris Montparnasse to Lourdes--that's station to station time, add for waiting for the train, getting from the station to the hotel.

I'll leave it to others to answer the rest of your questions, but wanted to mention the travel time so you'd have a realistic expectation of what time you'll arrive at the Lourdes station (depending on which train you're able to catch)--if you should decide not to wait until the next day to train to Lourdes.

My guess is that if you really are flexible you will be able to get a reservation on one of those trains, on a typical day. On a holiday I do not know.

But, what a grueling plan! You are going to get on a plane in California and travel across nine time zones for more than 24 hours. Maybe 36 hours.

To make it worse, if you sleep on the train you prolong jet lag.

My suggestion would be to fly in closer to where you actually want to be--if not to Lourdes, then to Pau or Biarritz.

I'll defer to anyone who has actually done what you suggest, but my guess is that few would choose to.

Joel, by all means, take a day or two in Paris before jumping on the train. I have done similar trips in the past and don't recommend it. That way you can get over the jet lag and make your train arrangements.

I guess another question is whether you even need a France rail pass. With the sale tickets available over the web, and with additional reservation fees required for passholders, you may find your journeys are much cheaper by buying point to point tickets on line.

"waste a day in Paris"? Mon Dieu, vous ont aucune honte ?

See this is why I like posting questions here! :) Thanks for all the replies. For some reason it never occurred to me to fly directly to Pau and take the 30 min. or so train from Pau to Lourdes. The question now is where to get tickets hehe...

It will cost you over $500 US to fly one-way from CDG to Pau on Air France. It would be cheaper to book a roundtrip ticket and throw away the return portion.

If you were to take a TGV from CDG to Lourdes rather than going into Paris and departing from Gare Montparnasse, you wouldn't be able to leave until 13:37, you would have to connect to another train at Bordeaux, and you wouldn't arrive at Lourdes until 21:16.

I don't know how many other train rides you plan to take in France, but if you can commit in advance to specific departure dates and times, you can get discount fares for many routes, thereby making a railpass not cost effective.

If you take the 14:40 TGV directly from Gare Montparnasse to Lourdes, you'll arrive at 20:14. The standard 2nd class fare is €91.50. If you book your ticket well in advance (up to 3 months allowed) at www.tgv-europe.com, you can get a 2nd class Prem's fare as low as €22 and a 1st class Prem's fare as low as €40. To keep the site in English and to avoid being bumped to the Rail Europe site which doesn't offer discount fares, choose Great Britain as both your country of residence and the country in which you will retrieve your ticket. If you get a Prem's fare, you print the ticket yourself and take it with you. Since you don't want your ticket mailed to the UK, for any other fare choose to pick up the ticket at a station automatic ticket machine. Note, however, that those machines only take credit cards with embedded chips so you'll have to go to the window and have the agent swipe the card you used to book the ticket and you'll need to give the confirmation number you'll be sent by e-mail.

Hi Joel- In July we flew into Paris (we stayed about 10 days)during that time we took a day trip to Lourdes- we took Air France /Orly Airport roundtrip about $304. Took the earliest flight about 9 am and return flight about 6 pm. We took the baths in at the shrine and visited the main church..it was a beautiful experience. We decided to fly since the train ride is about 6 hours. Next time we go we might stay overnite. Hope you have a great time!

I would also like to travel from Paris to Lourdes in one day via Air France. Is this better to be arranged when already in Paris or can I book the flight arrangements here from the states? Also, what is the best/efficient way to get from the Lourdes airport to the church, etc?

Hello Maria!

We booked a flight in the states via Air France's website. The price difference of airfare vs train fare was a matter of US$30/person round-trip (we flew in on a Saturday and flew out on a Monday). Air France was US$260 RT while train was US$230RT. Figured that was money well spent saving travel time. However, it seems that flights in the middle of the week are more expensive. So consider that when you book a flight. If you have railpass then train might be more economical. Another thing was that France rail company went on strike the day we left, so it was a good thing we were flying out otherwise we would be enduring a 12 hour bus to Paris ugh LOL...

It is easy to get to Orly Aiport by public transpo, just take the RER to Antony station and an OrlyVal train to Orly Airport (its a service that only goes to Orly Airport and back to Antony). Very easy to do if you pack light (one carry one piece for each of us).

Lourdes Airport to church is best done by Taxi. We paid 24EURO for a cab from the airport to our hotel. You might pay a little over 30EURO. OR just take a cab to the train station and take the City bus from the train station to the Sanctuaries (1.2Euro one way, 2EURO RT).

If you have any other questions just reply to this thread or send me a private message via this hotline site.

Seems like you are from the SF Bay Area too! We are practically neighbors lol

• Joel http://ithinkiamgettinglost.blogspot.com

Thank you for the prompt reply, neighbor! I was thinking of travelling to Lourdes, back and forth in one day - there is a flight that arrives in Lourdes at 10:30am and returns to Paris at 6:15pm. I am searching the net trying to find anyone who has done the same, because I want to find out if a few hours if sufficient to see the sites in Lourdes, specifically the grotto and church. I do not have much time in Paris (6 days) – so I do not want to spend two days outside of the city if I do not need to do so..