The Innocents Abroad, 21st Century Version

The Innocents Abroad aka The New Pilgrims Progress by Mark Twain was published in 1867, after Twain accompanied a group of Americans to Europe and “the Holy Land.” Coincidentally, this itinerary was quite similar to our 9 month plan, starting in September 2023. I highly recommend reading the chapters on Paris; I was laughing out loud (this book is available as public domain so can be downloaded gratis).

Year one included Paris, Chamonix, India, Israel and San Sebastian and all posts are available.

Now my husband Andy and I are in year two. We are in Mexico City November and December, 2024 and will spend the winter in Saint Martin de Belleville, part of the Trois Vallees in the French Alps.

It continues to be quite a ride!

TGIF in Paris

Published by

Joan Taback Frankle

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We started our day exploring Montagne Saint-Genviève, a hill in the Latin Quarter, visiting the Panthéon and Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, a beautiful church.

Some big doors!
And yes, that’s the Eiffel Tower, all the way in the background.

Originally planned as the Church of Sainte-Geneviève (for the patron saint of Paris), the Panthéon’s construction coincided with the French Revolution. So the building’s purpose was redefined to house the remains of distinguished French citizens.* Adjacent to the Panthéon is Saint-Étienne-du-Mont which contains the shrine of Sainte-Geneviève,the patron saint of Paris. As you can see, the architecture is flamboyant in the style of both Gothic and Renaissance architecture.

Saint-Etienne-du-Mont
The Church opened in 1624

Friday night, erev Shabbat and Sukkot, was very special as we were invited to join new friends, Kenden and Charles and their daughter Yael for Shabbat dinner at their beautiful apartment in the 17th arr. Our hosts mentioned that their arrondissement includes a large Jewish population, 40,000 out of the 300,000 Jews living in Paris and its suburbs. Their work has brought them all over the world and they have now settled in Paris after living in Cambodia where they started a school. We lit candles, sang, recited prayers and dined on a terrific and healthy meal. Our hosts have a tradition of reading and discussing the essays of the Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z”l, on Shabbat. We read about the debate over the importance of Sukkot and the Sukkah and recited some traditional prayers after the meal. Kenden is a published cookbook author so after dinner she shared her books with us. The picture below is one of Kenden’s, cookbooks. There are recipe contributions of Jewish women from all over the world; this book also weaves in stories from the Talmud. And yes, Andy and Charles did discuss their shared experience as synagogue treasurers.

What a beautiful cookbook! The photo on the bottom right is Yael’s creation.

Andy and I were sorry to learn about the huge amount of rain back in the northeast. We hope no one suffered damages and that things are drying out and getting back to normal.

À bientôt!

*A few notable Panthéon Bold Face Names: Voltaire, Marat, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Zola, Louis Braille, Anotine de Saint-Exupery, Marie and Pierre Curie, Malraux, Dumas and Josephine Baker).

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