.htccess and /page/

RewriteRule /journal/ ^index\.php [R=301,L]
change index to whatever file you want- that should work

multiviews allows you to drop the extension when requesting a page.

so, will I have to use Options +Multiviews ??
And @clay, will I have to give the journal?

indranil: Not sure if you figured this out or not but I will respond anyway for future reference:
You replace the first part with whatever url you would like to access the page by
for example:
RewriteRule /news/ ^index\.php [R=301,L]
would point the url: https://www.example.com/news/ to index.php