Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier: Devonshire, England

August 9th-13th, 2023

Join Dana Schwartz and Vanessa Zoltan for a pilgrimage next August in rural Cornwall, England! This small group of pilgrims will explore Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca together with intention and care. Each day, we will have a morning discussion about our theme, viewing it through a passage of the text. We will engage in sacred reading practices while reflecting on the text and our own lives. On this trip, we will walk up to twelve miles a day through beautiful countryside. Using the landscape as a source of inspiration, we will spend our days walking, reading, and joining in conversation about this novel.

Rebecca is a novel about memory and ghosts — the ghosts that linger in physical spaces and beyond. On this pilgrimage, we will explore how our memories shape the stories we tell ourselves today, and what ghosts from our past we carry with us. We will connect these themes, along with the other themes in the book, to conversations in our own lives, asking ourselves questions like: how do our histories inform our present? What power can we find in our preoccupations, or how do those preoccupations limit us? What conscious and unconscious narratives do we play into as we embark upon new chapters of our lives?

We’ll meet near the Plymouth train station on the early afternoon of the 9th and then travel to the riverside country estate Erth Barton, where we’ll stay for the remainder of our time together. Each day, we will make space for writing, reflection, reading, silence, ancient reading practices and of course, walking.

Vanessa Zoltan

Vanessa is the CEO of Not Sorry. She hosts three of our podcasts: Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, The Real Question, and Hot & Bothered. She founded Common Ground Pilgrimages in order to travel with brilliant faculty to beautiful places and talk about books with amazing pilgrims. It was a great trick she pulled off! She is also the author of the book, Praying with Jane Eyre.

Vanessa was trained as a non-denominational chaplain at Harvard Divinity School. She is a proud California girl who currently lives in MA with her gorgeous, blended family. Her Romance novelist pseudonym, if she ever publishes a Romance novel, will be Lorelai Mason.

Vanessa is working as co-faculty and chaplain on this trip.

What's Included:

• Four nights in a shared room at Erth Barton retreat in Cornwall

• All meals from tea on the 9th to breakfast on the 13th

• Transportation within England from August 9th to August 13th within the Cornwall region

• One-on-one chaplaincy sessions with Vanessa

• Private walking tours, picnics, and talks with local experts

• Customized journal

pricing/Logistics:

We will be walking up to 12 miles each day, sometimes on hilly terrain. The Cornwall summer is typically beautiful, but the weather in the UK is notoriously variant. It might be mild and sunny, or wet and windy, sometimes all in the same day. We won’t rush our walks, but we expect to be tired at the end of each day.

• The total cost of the trip is $4,600 for a shared room

• People who have attended another Common Ground pilgrimage will receive a 5% discount on the cost of the trip

• Registration is first-come, first-served

• We will reach out to the first registrants with a link to make their payment within 72 hours of receiving their registration link

• When you sign up through our registration system, it will act as a waitlist, and we will let you know via email once a spot has been confirmed for you

• If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at commonground@notsorryproductions.com

COVID Policy:

We are so excited to travel with you again, and as always, our first priority is to make sure that the trips are safe for everyone involved, including the communities we visit and the people who host us. To that end, we are keeping a close eye on the evolving COVID situation and will update you as frequently as we can if the situation with the pilgrimages changes. 

Below are some potential expectations we could have in terms of covid safety. Only sign up for the trip is you feel comfortable following any/all of the below guidelines:

• Wearing masks indoors or outdoors, no matter group size

• Social distancing, both indoors and outdoors 

• Getting proof of a negative COVID-19 test within a certain number of hours before arrival

• Getting a negative COVID test upon arrival at the destination

• Proof of vaccination

• Quarantining upon arrival to destination country

On our end, we will refund fully any payments made for the trip in the event that we at Common Ground Pilgrimages have to cancel due to change in travel restrictions, variants, etc. 

By making payment, you acknowledge the above precautions and are willing to follow them, or any similar recommendations, when you come on the pilgrimage. 

Refund Policy:

Please be sure you can attend the event before booking. If an unforeseen circumstance does occur, we will do our best to find a replacement for you. If we are able to get someone to take your place, we will refund your full payment minus a service charge (10% of the full payment). For cancellations within six weeks of the beginning of the trip, we are not able to find replacements. We strongly urge you to purchase travel insurance in the event of a personal conflict, health issue, or unexpected circumstance.