Good Morning Cara, After Thanksgiving, I will send in my reservation and deposit for the Vilnius-Poland pilgrimage. It sounds wonderful! In the meantime, I finally have a few minutes to write down my thoughts about Donna-Marie’s pilgrimage to France. I have to say, first of all, that I’m very glad that I waited because, as I’ve now had the opportunity to show my photos and talk about the pilgrimage with several of my friends, I now also have their perspectives, and everyone that I’ve spoken with is amazed at how much of France we covered and how many shrines we visited. As I look back, I recognize that one of the reasons our pilgrimage was such a big success is because 206 Tours has the experience and knowledge to plan out and execute what really is a strenuous itinerary, but have the journey flow very smoothly and seamlessly. As I mentioned in my earlier email, Juan Carlos, our Tour Director, and Mario, our driver, both were excellent. Juan Carlos’ experience as a Tour Director and his knowledge of our faith contributed greatly to our pilgrimage success. I can’t say that I felt that any one stop was the highlight of my pilgrimage because it was all so amazing and beautiful, starting with Lourdes through to the shrines in Paris. The pilgrimage itself was a highlight of my overall travel experiences! Having said that, being able to celebrate Mass at so many beautiful shrines was wonderful; I’ve been on other pilgrimages where some of the Masses were actually celebrated in hotel meeting rooms – none of that on this pilgrimage. And with that, I do have to say that the visit to Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery was beautifully solemn. I appreciated being there this year, vs. during the 75th anniversary, when there will probably be many more visitors each day. The day we visited, very few others were there and the stillness was striking; I could look out at the English Channel, picture the soldiers struggling to come ashore, and could say a small, silent prayer for their souls, then celebrating Mass with our small group in the cemetery chapel touched me (and all in our group) with the spirituality of the moment.

June Getchius