Zarafa: A Giraffe's True Story
Registered by 
souram
of Genève, Genève Switzerland on 6/4/2009
This book is in a Controlled Release!
souram of Genève, Genève Switzerland on 6/4/2009 This book is in a Controlled Release!
1 journaler for this copy...
I like this book. I know it from its French translation, "La Girafe de Charles X". In 1830, Mehmet Ali, the Egyptian Pasha, decided to make a gift to the French King "roi de France" Charles the 10th: a giraffa !
This real and famous giraffa traveled through the Mediterranean Sea, and then through France. The lonely animal (no partner was bought afterwards) spent the rest of its life at the Paris zoo of "Jardin des Plantes" (Plants' Garden) and as it died, the giraffa was stuffed and sent to La Rochelle Natural History Museum. It's still there in the main hall because it was too tall to enter any other room. La Rochelle is located on Atlantic shore in "département" Charente-Maritime, France.
This giraffa odyssey can be considered as the crucial moment in which merchandising started in France. Cafés and restaurants "A la Girafe" mushroomed all along the roads followed by the giraffa, from Marseilles to Paris. Some rich women had their hair cut "alla giraffa", à la mode girafe, this was a sort of decorative hairdressing. One could find wallpaper massively ornated with small giraffas, etc. And even a new speech fantasy appeared in French language, "peigner la girafe" (to com giraffa's hair, more or less) i.e. to do something useless, artificial and funny, or any job or action deprived of any hope of profit. "C'est mieux que de peigner la girafe" i.e. "That's better than being jobless".
But this giraffa was NOT the first to be seen in Europe. In Tuscany city Florence, present-day Italian city Firenze, another Pasha (in the late years of the XVth century CE) offered a giraffa to the Medici dynasty (at that time Medici family was at power in Florence). This 15th century giraffa ended its life in Siena, another famous city of "Toscana"; one of the parts of Siena is still called "contrada della giraffa", i.e. the Giraffa urban area.
This real and famous giraffa traveled through the Mediterranean Sea, and then through France. The lonely animal (no partner was bought afterwards) spent the rest of its life at the Paris zoo of "Jardin des Plantes" (Plants' Garden) and as it died, the giraffa was stuffed and sent to La Rochelle Natural History Museum. It's still there in the main hall because it was too tall to enter any other room. La Rochelle is located on Atlantic shore in "département" Charente-Maritime, France.
This giraffa odyssey can be considered as the crucial moment in which merchandising started in France. Cafés and restaurants "A la Girafe" mushroomed all along the roads followed by the giraffa, from Marseilles to Paris. Some rich women had their hair cut "alla giraffa", à la mode girafe, this was a sort of decorative hairdressing. One could find wallpaper massively ornated with small giraffas, etc. And even a new speech fantasy appeared in French language, "peigner la girafe" (to com giraffa's hair, more or less) i.e. to do something useless, artificial and funny, or any job or action deprived of any hope of profit. "C'est mieux que de peigner la girafe" i.e. "That's better than being jobless".
But this giraffa was NOT the first to be seen in Europe. In Tuscany city Florence, present-day Italian city Firenze, another Pasha (in the late years of the XVth century CE) offered a giraffa to the Medici dynasty (at that time Medici family was at power in Florence). This 15th century giraffa ended its life in Siena, another famous city of "Toscana"; one of the parts of Siena is still called "contrada della giraffa", i.e. the Giraffa urban area.
From present-day Sudan to France. The journey of the Zarafa, the "giraffa camaeleopardis".
I sometimes take part to bookcrossing challenge - see on forum Release Challenges on the site - Around the World. I decided to choose to send the book to your country because of the journey told in "Zarafa".
I hope you will enjoy this true story.
I sometimes take part to bookcrossing challenge - see on forum Release Challenges on the site - Around the World. I decided to choose to send the book to your country because of the journey told in "Zarafa".
I hope you will enjoy this true story.
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Salaam Sudan people!
Greetings from Switzerland.
Salaam Sudan people!
Greetings from Switzerland.
