Stage six, June 16

Because there were no available common rooms at the hotel in Langres, we had to hurriedly celebrate Mass in the dining room before a busload of senior citizens invaded. The innkeeper insisted that we celebrate Mass as quickly as possible and get out of his dining room. Fortunately, we found a great place for supper. We stuffed ourselves into one of our small rooms to pray evening prayer, and did the same thing this morning for Morning Prayer.

As we headed south through the countryside, it was clearly the most beautiful day we've had. We have been blessed with great weather, even though there was a strong wind today. Here are Janet and Maggie, our faithful servants, along with Lynn, Maggie's mother.

Susan Carozza is climbing through some of the beautiful fields of wheat. A herd of cows paced us in this field and kept up with us for quite a while.

My sister, Janet, is our faithful driver. She and Maggie always take the van to the place where we agreed to stop, feed us, and give us water, and then drive to next stop. They even carry our luggage into the rooms where we are staying.

This area of France is lush and beautiful. We traveled through many forests. The scenery was spectacular.

After cycling 68 miles and climbing almost 5000 feet, we finally arrived in Besancon. It is a beautiful town, much larger than the Besancon in our diocese. Parking the van in the narrow garage of the hotel was a bit of a challenge. But Donald did it with great class!

Instead of celebrating Mass in the hotel, all of us went to the Cathedral for the evening Mass. I concelebrated with a very nice priest who did not speak a word of English. In my brilliant French, I tried to tell him that we have a  parish called St. Louis, Besancon, in our diocese. He thought that our parish was St. Louis. He talked about us in the homily, at the beginning of Mass, and at the end of Mass. He could not have been more welcoming. It was a very positive experience for all of us.