Jewish France
The Jewish community of France is the third largest in the world with over 800,000 citizens. European Jewish Tours prides itself on showing you the synagogues and monuments, cities and regions that confirm the proverb "happy as a king in France".
For centuries France has been an important center of European Jewish life and scholarship; the cities of Troyes, Avignon, Paris and Narbonne were known throughout the Christian and Jewish worlds for their rabbis and interpreters of the Torah and the Talmud. Through European Jewish tours you will discover the places where these luminaries made their mark, and walk in the footsteps of such renowned figures in the arts and industry, including Sarah Bernhardt, Jacques Offenbach, Marcel Proust, Marc Chagall, Camille Pissarro and Amadeo Mondigliani. Today, France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy has clearly stated that he is “a friend of Israel” and he has encouraged Holocaust studies in the French public school system. This is just one of the many signs that Jewish citizens and their interests are being given new consideration and respect in France today.
Here are some examples of the customized luxury tours that European Jewish Tours is organizing in and around France.
Jewish Paris
Explore and learn the history and culture of the world's fourth largest Jewish community through a fascinating tour of the Marais that includes: the Jewish Documentation Center and Holocaust Memorial, the Museum of Jewish Art and History, the synagogues of Hector Guimard and Gustave Eiffel, as well as the splendid Nissim de Camondo Museum. We will also introduce you to the best schawarma and felafel this side of Tel Aviv. Art lovers can discover the studio and home of Ossip Zadkine and the Montparnasse Museum – home of the School of Paris: Chagall, Soutine, Modigliani...
See Fees to book your tours.
French Kosher Gastronomy
Our kosher food tour starts with a walking tour in the Marais district where you will discover some of the finest kosher butchers, grocery stores and bakeries in France. You will then visit a food market where French chefs and housewives buy their daily fish and produce, and then partake in the only kosher cooking school in Paris, which has recently opened. In addition to enjoying a lesson in French kosher cuisine, you will also be able to have a private kosher wine tasting and enjoy an excellent kosher meal that you have learned to prepare! You can also discover kosher vineyards in France, including in Alsace and Bordeaux.
See Fees to book your tours.
Chic Shopping for Kosher Tastes
Our customized private shopping tours, available in both English and Hebrew, will introduce you to the finest shopping in Paris, including for clothes suitable to wear both in and outside of the synagogue. Our guide also has access to wholesale designers not only for clothes and hats for all seasons, but also for jewellery, handbags and shoes. Best of all, we know where to purchase styles and cuts that suit every figure. This type of tour can also be adapted for professionals, seeking to order stock for their retail outlets in Israel or the United States.
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Artists & Models of the School of Paris
If your preference is for art, European Jewish Tours also has an art tour that includes the Montparnasse studios of Man Ray, Chagall, Soutine and Pascin, the Montparnasse Museum, the Zadkine Museum, in the former Left Bank home and studio of the Russian-Jewish sculptor Osip Zadkine, as well as the Museum of Jewish Art and History in the Marais district. Also on the tour is the Dina Vierny-Auguste Maillol Museum, commissioned by Russian-Jewish gallery owner Dina Vierny, who was his final muse, model and legal heir.
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Castles of Jewish Millionaires in Ile de France
With European Jewish Tours, discover two of the most stunning castles and gardens in the Ile-de-France: the Chateau of Ferrieres designed by the English architect Joseph Paxton and built for James and Bettina Rothschild and the Château of Champs, once home to Madame de Pompadour, and later owned by the Jewish banker Louis Cahen, who returned it to its former magnificence before bequeathing it to the French state. (This tour is ideal for groups).
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Jewish Alsace / Lorraine
Now thanks to the TGV you can be in Strasbourg in less than two and a half hours to discover the rich and fascinating heritage of Jews in Alsace. Similar in manner and custom to Jews from Eastern and Central Europe, Alsatian Jews nonetheless developed some characteristics of their own: a synagogue liturgy called Minhag Elzos and a dialect called Judeo-Alsatian, akin to Yiddish.
For several decades, an ambitious program has been underway to save Alsation Jewish heritage sites. With European Jewish Tours, you will discover restored synagogues and visit select museums that translate the rich past of Jewish Alsace.
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Jewish Strasbourg
The Jewish community of Strasbourg has made a miraculous comeback after the devastation of occupation during World War II. Many of the city’s 17,000 Jews live in a charming and fashionable neighbourhood near the Parc des Contades.
Your tour will include a visit to the old Jewish quarter on Rue des Juifs (one of the city’s oldest streets), that includes the site of a 12th century synagogue, a Jewish bakery, and a surviving 13th century Mikvah. One building, completed in 1290, is the only remaining building once inhabited by Jews.
You will also visit the Synagogue de la Paix built in 1958 to replace the one destroyed by the Nazis. Adjacent to the famous Cathedral, the Museum of Notre-Dame chronicles the development of the arts in the upper Rhine from the 11th to the 17th centuries. In the museum’s courtyard, you will see Jewish tombstones from the 12th through the 14th centuries.
In the afternoon, following lunch, you will visit the Alsatian Museum, where you will find an exhibit of Alsation Jewish ritual objects and a model shtiebel (prayer room).
See Fees to book your tours.
Jewish Colmar
Part of Germany until 1681, Colmar has a Jewish community that probably dates to the mid-13th century. The medieval community, which owned a synagogue, mikvah, and a cemetery, settled between the present Rue Chauffour and Rue Berthe-Molly (then names Rue des Juifs).
Your tour will include the visit of the Colmar Synagogue, originally built in 1840. This neo-Romanesque synagogue typical of France during the period, was destroyed by the Nazis during World War II and then restored by the local community.
You will also visit the Musée Bartholdi, which contains a fine collection of Jewish rituals objects and synagogue furnishings. The museum is located in the house of Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty.
Driving Tours through Alsace
An excellent way to see many of Eastern France’s historic Jewish sites is to travel by car with a guide and driver. Our tour includes stops in Bischheim, Haguenau, Pfaffenhoffen, Bouxwiller, Obernai, Colmar and Struthof. Along the way, you will discover in the midst of picturesque villages ancient mikvahs, synagogues, and cemeteries that document the rural life of Alsatian Jews over the centuries. We can even arrange visits to kosher wineries so you can sample that fabled Alsatian wine. This tour is ideal with a driver/guide or with a guide and chauffeur.
See Fees to book your tours.
Jewish Champagne-Lorraine
Champagne was once site of a number of centers of Jewish scholarship-most notably in Troyes, Rashi's birthplace. During the Middle Ages, Jews were prominent in viticulture and agriculture.
Troyes : In the footsteps of Rashi
One of history's greatest Torah and Talmud commentators, Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, known by the acronym Rashi (1040-1105), was born, lived, and taught here. During the Frist Crusade, Rashi was forced to flee anti-Jewish riots. He returned to Worms, Germany, where he had first studied. He remained there until his death.
Rashi's grandson, the noted Jewish scholar known as Rabbenu Tam (1100-1171) also taught in Troyes and attracted students from all over Europe. Historians believe that the St-Frobert quarter was the Jewish quarter. Nothing remains of the medieval Jewish community that, although very small in size, made a huge contribution to judaism.
Your tour will include the Synagogue of Troy, located in an historic section of town, this synagogue is a replica of one from Rashi's time. Begun in 1982, it was dedicated in 1987.
Jewish Nancy
The main synagogue, built in 1788, was restored and enlarged in 1841. It is one of the oldest in both Alsace and Lorraine, and listed as a French historical monument. During World War II, the Germans used it as a supply depot. The Lorraine Museum has the second-most-important collection in France of Torahs, prayer books, and other Jewish objects. Open daily, except Tuesday and public holidays.
Jewish Reims
Historians are uncertain as to the location of Reims' medieval synagogue, but it is believed to have been at 18, rue des Elus, a street whose name has changed over the centuries from the Vicus Judaeorum to the Rue de Gieu (a form of Juif) to the Rue des Elus.
Jews from Alsace and Lorraine established a community in Reims in 1870. However, in 1941, on the eve of World War II, the 200 families who lived here were all deported by the Germans of a single day.
Our tour will include the visit of Reims' Synagogue. Built in 1871 this synagogue contains a memorial plaque to those who were deported. You will also be able to see the War Memorial, where there is an urn containing the ashes of concentration camp victims. To slake your thist you will get a chance to taste the champagnes of Taittinger, Moet & Chandon and veuve Cliquot -and take home a bottle or two.
Jewish Provence
Some of the oldest Jewish sites are in Provence where Jewish culture has thrived since the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, the countryside of Provence became the home of many Jews after they were exiled from the Kingdom of France by Philip the Fair and Charles VI.
When Provence became part of France in 1481, the Jews found refuge in the enclave formed by Papal possessions in Provence in both Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin.
With European Jewish tours, our full-day tour includes: the old Jewish quarter in Avignon along with Palace of the Popes, visit the synagogue built in 1846, and travel to the vineyards of nearby Chateauneuf-du-Pape, which produces kosher, as well as non-kosher wines.
The oldest Jewish synagogue in France (1741-1743) in Carpentras known for its fabulous Rococo sanctuary similar to Italian synagogues of the same period. If you wish, we can arrange tours of the town’s Jewish cemetery with gravestones dating back to the 18th century.
The Musée Judéo-Comtadin of Cavaillon, which displays the community’s history and objects including Torah scrolls, ritual objects and historical documents.
Other points of interest that can be added to a longer tour include: Aix-en-Provence, our walking tour will take you to the Medieval Jewish dwellings in Rue Verrerie and the Lapidary Museum, with its fine collection of Judaica.
In Marseille, you will discover the history of France’s second largest Jewish community, which Jews have called home since the 6th century. The Jews of Marseilles were scholars, merchants, laborers and coral craftsmen, all of whom were chronicled in the 12th century by Benjamin of Tudela. Here you will visit the Synagogue Breteuil built in 1864.
European Jewish Tours can arrange synagogue visits and book local kosher restaurants.
See Fees to book your tours.
Celebrated Jews on the French Riviera
In Nice, European Jewish Tours, will take you to the wonderful Chagall Museum, known for its stunning mosaics, stained glass windows and series of paintings illustrating Old Testament subjects, including the Song of Songs.
Also on the tour is the Museum of Contemporary Art, where you'll discover such famous contemporary Jewish artists as Robert Rauschenberg, Yves Klein, Arman and Ben, to name a few.
If you want to discover the life of the Jewish "jet-set" before their were jets, then head with European Jewish Tours to the exquisite Cap Ferrat, where you'll discover two of the most breathtaking mansions on the Riviera: the Villa Kerylos, a striking reproduction of a 5th century B.C. Athenian villa built in 1908 by the noted Jewish Hellenist Theodore Reinach, and the pink Villa Ephrussi Rothschild, built by the flamboyant Beatrice Rothschild, who never went anywhere without her trunk of 50 wigs, and who greeted guests at parties dressed as Marie-Antoinette.
European Jewish Tours can also make special arrangements for synagogue visits and services in Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo, as well as bookings at kosher restaurants.
See Fees to book your tours.
Kosher Ship to Shore Tours
Normandy and the French Riviera
If you want to enjoy private tours of Normandy or the French Riviera during your cruise, then don’t
hesitate to contact European Jewish Tours to have these services arranged and catered to your kosher
needs. With us, you can visit the Normandy D-Day Beaches, as well as its wonderful Castles and
Gardens or the French Riviera, a Mediterranean playground and vacation spot once frequented by
English and Russian aristocrats. European Jewish Tours arranges private transportation pickup to
and from the cruise ship, Jewish Heritage Tours in the regions you will be visiting, as well as any
kosher meals or services you may require.
See Fees to book your tours.
