OF PILGRIMAGES AND HOLIDAYS

Holy Name, Manchester

On Saturday 28th July together with my travelling companion, Br David from Holy Name Church, Manchester set out towards Folkestone for the first leg of our pilgrimage to Lourdes with the diocese.

Thankfully we had a good journey down and made good time.  This allowed us to take an earlier crossing than planned. We arrived in Calais around 4:30pm and then began the drive to Paris in search of accommodation. 

We arrived in central Paris and then began the task of finding a bed for the night.  (With hindsight it would have been better to book before setting off, but it takes some of the fun and adventure out of it if everything is planned.  We tried several hotels all with the same response 'je suis vraiment desolee mais nous sommes complet.'  - We are very sorry but we are full.  By now time was marching on and I was beginning to think we might have to follow the exampe of our friend, Fr. Paul Daly who had to spend an evening in the car due to all the rooms being full in Douai.



Paris by Night

We decided to head out of central Paris in the hope of finding a place lay our heads.  In driving out of central Paris I took a wrong turning and we ended up in a place that Br David describes as a scene from a war zone.  In spite of appearances we managed to find a low cost accommodation for the night.  After putting our bags in the rooms we headed out for a bite to eat. 

 

Just down the road we found this lovely restaurant that was thanking still serving food at what was now 10:30pm.  We sat down to a lovely steak bleu and a bottle of local parisian wine.