Schalit goes to France

Gilad Schalit salutes upon his return to Israeli soil last year.

Gilad Schalit (you don't really need to know who he is, right?) just took a trip to France.

It was his first excursion outside Israel since being released by Hamas last year. It marks a huge milestone in his recovery from being held by terrorists for nearly six years.

Here's a snippet from a report by JTA:

PARIS (JTA) -- Former captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and his parents met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the presidential palace in Paris.

“We are very happy to be here at the Elysee Palace,” said Noam Shalit, speaking to journalists Wednesday morning.  “We are very touched.”

Hours later, Shalit's parents attended the annual gala hosted by the French Jewish umbrella group CRIF.

Sarkozy had met repeatedly with Gilad’s father, Noam, after the young Israeli soldier, who has dual French citizenship, was captured on the border with Gaza in 2006 and held hostage there for more than five years by Hamas.

Now that he's traveling with his family, hopefully his progressive return to a "normal" life is sped up. But the kind of emotional and psychological trauma he must have endured is still too hard to fathom.

What do you think?