UPDATE TO OUR SEPTEMBER 2021 BLOG POST: CEREMONY COMMEMORATING JOSEPHINE BAKER BEING HONOURED AT THE PANTHÉON IN PARIS©

 

On September 28, 2021, I published a Snobby Tours® Travelblog article herein about the Panthéon in Paris, France, its history, architecture, and famous French icons buried within its crypts.

I noted in my September Travelblog article that on November 30, 2021, the remains of the multi-talented American-born Jazz-Era performer, Civil Rights activist, French Air Force nurse and courageous member of the French Resistance during World War II, Josephine Baker, who became a French citizen in 1937, would be interred at the Panthéon -- the first Black woman and woman of colour to be honoured in this way by the country of France. 

After Baker's death in 1975 in Paris, she had been buried with full military honours in Monaco where, during her last years, she and her children had lived in a home provided by Princess Grace.  Consequently, rather than move her remains from Monaco to Paris for re-interment at the Panthéon, her family ultimately requested that her presence in the Panthéon be represented by a symbolic coffin containing handfuls of earth from four places where she had lived:  St. Louis, Missouri where she was born and spent her childhood, Paris, Monaco, and Milandes in the Dordogne region of France where she had once owned a castle and lived with her 12 racially and ethnically diverse adopted children.  

The induction ceremony held on November 30, 2021, at which French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with eloquence and relevance, received worldwide coverage by the media. The extraordinarily beautiful induction ceremony and national event was held at night with special lighting on the front of the Panthéon, Paris city lights flickering in the background and illuminating the Eiffel Tower, and people of all ages lining the street leading up to the entrance of the Panthéon, was deeply moving.  

The symbolic coffin was carried into the Panthéon by six pallbearers to be placed in a crypt alongside other national icons of France, including authors, politicians, philosophers and scientists.  

A live-streamed video produced by France24 which also includes historical and in-depth commentary about Josephine Baker and her life in France, can be viewed by linking to:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdLQsVqHiaE.

To read my September 2021 Snobby Tours® Travelblog article about the Panthéon. a National Monument of France open daily to the public for visiting, subject to the currently applicable COVID19 health and safety protocols, link to the following:  https://snobbytours.blogspot.com/2021/09/

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(Photo sources: REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier/Pool; Richmond Free Press;  The Gazette: Gazettextra)  

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