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!

A Chamonix Connection to Mark Twain

Published by

Joan Taback Frankle

on

7 Mars 2024

Who knew that when I named this blog The Innocents Abroad, 21st Century Version, that I would find even more in common with its 19th Century author, Mark Twain. Turns out, after Innocents, Twain was back in Europe, sharing his humor and escapades in A Tramp Abroad, published in 1880. Chapter XLIV is titled “I Scale Mont Blanc by Telescope” and is a funny account of NOT ascending this grand mountain, but living vicariously through a group that was. Twain paid a few French francs for the telescopic ascent and this is how he described the scenery from the top:
“We passed the glacier safely and began to mount the steeps beyond, with great alacrity. When we were seven minutes out from the starting-point, we reached an altitude where the scene took a new aspect; an apparently limitless continent of gleaming snow was tilted heavenward before our faces. As my eye followed that awful acclivity far away up into the remote skies, it seemed to me that all I had ever seen before of sublimity and magnitude was small and insignificant compared to this.” 


Another way to see this 30 mile long mountain range (or NOT, in my case) is by parapente, otherwise known as paragliding. We have watched both solo and tandem takeoffs and sometimes, we have even seen people flying with skis on (these must be the black diamond flyers as they need to navigate and find a nice ski slope on which to land).  

Today was the perfect bluebird day for this activity and I wanted to share it with you.

I love ending a bluebird ski day, watching parapente prep and take off.

I am happy to share this experience and live vicariously through these brave flyers, just as Mark Twain shared Mont Blanc with his readers through a telescope!

À bientôt❣️

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