Today was the pinnacle of the trip, to visit St. Therese of Lisieux. This great saint was the reason for my return the the Catholic faith, despite my unwillingness or desire to return. Very often people just think “oh you were born and raised Catholic so that’s why you believe in it”. This is anything but true, in all honesty I tell people if it was up to me when I discerning what is truth and where does God truly reveal the fullness of who He is, I flirted with the idea of Rastafarianism. The thought you could smoke weed and read the Bible was alluring, but this is what deception is at the finest. It looks nice and shiny, but often is a cheap knock off of the original.

This visit was just scratching the surface however. To begin we roamed the town of Lisieux a little bit the night before. We had a nice experience in the cathedral, and fun meal at a creperie we found which was one of the few places open. In the morning we went to liturgy with the Carmelite nuns, in the very Carmelite Monastery Therese spent 8 years in before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 24, hardly known in this world outside of this small town in France. From here we drove to Alencon where she was born, and her parents lived for some time. We found a nice bakery on our way out of Lisieux and ate along our travels. We went to the shrine dedicated to her parents who are now saints, a very rare moment in church history. In addition the shrine is connected to their old home. An amazing nun from Kenya gave a beautiful tour of the home.

After this amazing morning, we continued on this spiritual high to Lemans. This stop was not in our original plans, but thanks go meeting a seminarian who was from St. Theresa of Lisieux in Ashburn the very church that assured Monica and I we were meant to be in Virginia, we had to stop. You see, he was part of a religious group dedicated to the Holy Cross, their founder was in Lemans, literally along our route. We stopped by his tomb to say a pray for Brad, our new seminarian friend, in addition for my friend Ike Heckler Jr. I had to pray for Ike due to the irony of the situation. I just finished a thanksgiving trip to St. Therese who brought me home to faith. It was a weekend of racing with Ike, who drove a 67’ Le Mans, that led me to my awakening. Last time I spoke with him however, he was not well and moments like this are a nice reminder, God has a plan for everyone, and Ike’s time is near. I can only pray he responds to the Providence.

We completed our evening arriving in the Loire Valley, which is the wine region I selected for Monica, in addition to being near an important shrine/crypt. Dinner was amazing, and the hotel/restaurant we were staying in was family owned. It turned out to be an amazing experience with a duck pate, quail, an amazing creme brulee and so much more. La Bonne Etape and this region turned out to be a phenomenal find with lots of kindness and amazing experiences, so much so we decided to spend an extra night due to a missed night of booking on my part. We ended the night watching a movie I loved, growing up as a kid studying French…..Bon Voyage Charlie Brown. Here’s a short clip of how I felt at times with the New Year’s Eve Traffic….

For more pictures, click here.

France Day 3 Lisieux, Alencon, Le Mans