Ziraffa

~~A true love story of another time. The love story of a young giraffe and the big city of Paris.

Once upon a time in 1827 the Parisians saw for the first time a real living Giraffe. This long-legged and long-necked animal was for Paris the most exotic wonder coming from Africa. Everyone was crazy after this "Sweet Thing"- which is what they called it.

The King of France, Charles X, made a special reception for this nearly 4 m high animal-miss. Over 100,000 (at this time nearly 1/8 of the city population), came and looked at "Zarafa" (Arabic word for giraffe).The poet Honoré de Balzac wrote a story about her and his younger colleague Gustave Flaubert was able to travel at the age of 4 years from Rouen to Paris to take a look at Zarafa.

Paris was in a giraffe-fever: the ladies combed their hair high up and the hairdresser called this kind of hairdo "à la giraffe"- often the coiffures got so high that the ladies had to sit on the floor in the carriages when they went out for a ball. The dressing code was "à la giraffe" and the dresses had names like: "giraffe en amour" or "girafe en exile". A long ago romantic euphoria - blown away with the wind.

But now Zarafa and her story have been reawakened by the movie maker Michael Allin. After 10 years of research he wrote a book called: Zarafa - the extraordinary voyage of a giraffe out of the deepest heart of Africa into the heart of Paris" (Diana Edition - 230 pages).
 
Exciting question: - How did Zarafa get from far away Africa to Paris?
 
The adventure for the Giraffe-Darling began in fall 1824 and had a political background: Pasha Mehmed Ali, the Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt, wanted to get friendly with the French king. He was a fan of France, but he had sent his troops against the Greek guerrillas, who were supported by the French king, to help the Turkish Sultan. So he had the bright idea to catch the friendly attention of Charles X,  by giving him as a present an extraordinary animal.
 
Zarafa got somehow captured somewhere in Egypt. The small young animal was bound, they tied the long legs and on the back of a camel they brought teeny Zarafa to Khartoum in Sudan.There she was put on a riverboat and floated down the Nile to Alexandria. At this time the keepers of the animal still thought that young giraffes exclusively drink milk. So 3 cows were always following Zarafa - as she was forced to drink each day 25 liters of milk....
 
The second part of the big journey was the long and difficult passage from Alexandria to Marseilles: this by a ship over the sea. For this a hole had to be cut into the deck so that Zarafa had space in the freightroom. October 31st 1826 she arrived safely in Marseilles - it seems that she was a quite emancipated young lady now- and not easily frightened. She was well and had even grown quite a bit.

Now a problem occurred: should Zarafa continue to Paris by ship, which would mean through the Straits of Gibraltar, across the stormy Bay of Biscay and the Channel and up the River Seine to Paris? Or would it be better to let her walk the 900 km from Marseilles to Paris on her own long legs? The decision was made that it would be safer and  better if she walked to Paris.

But winter was near and it got suddenly cold ( reindeers would love this for sure -) so first a warm and roomy stall had to be constructed to fit her height, where she could stay over the winter in Marseilles. And one of the most famous animal scientists, Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, was hired to look daily after the double precious animal. (- as exotic zoological rarity and political present - ).

Geoffrey ordered a yellow coat for Zarafa to protect and keep her warm - the coat was made in two pieces, one part for the long neck and one part for the body- elegantly  embroidered with a black border. To be ensured that her 4 feet wouldn't get hurt by the coming long walk- her feet were sized in order that shoes would be ready for the beginning of spring (boots are made for walking~).
 
With this outfit Zarafa, already grown up now and full of good spirits, started on 20th May 1829 her long march to Paris.
 
In the meantime she had gotten a height of nearly 4 m, 15 cm higher than she was when arriving in Marseilles. She developed an amusing specialty: she only set one foot after the other when she could walk behind her milk-cows ( Milk-Mam as alpha-leader!) - even if she one day ran off her rope and ate with gusto leaves of a tilleulle-tree. Milk was no longer her only passion.
 
The "TOUR DE FRANCE" on LONG-LEGS was a big triumph-march. In Lyon 30,000 stood along the streets to applaud Zarafa when she walked graciously through the city. Whatever Zarafa thought by this- nobody knows.

After a 41-days walk ( poor men, they had to walk the whole way with her too- ) the giraffe reached Paris, thousands stunned and watching on the streets- they never ever had seen such an animal before.

July 9th 1827 she was proudly presented to the King. A magazine of the time wrote: "His Majesty wants to see this unique animal. He wishes also to see the animal run. More than a half an hour His Majesty has interrogated Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire." 

Zarafa got her home in Paris, this was the "Jardin des Plantes" the first Zoo of the world. She was visited by hundreds and hundreds of Parisians every day.
 
From this day on the giraffe-fever became an epidemic in Paris. Furniture, porcelain, tapestries and textiles were created in giraffe-form and colors and  design. The trees and bushes got cut in giraffe-patterns and the winter-flu of the year was even called: "giraffe-flu". Instead of "how do you do?" the IN-people said "How is your giraffe today?"- and another phrase, instead of "Do that now", was "Comb your giraffe."

Zarafa lived for nearly 18 years in Paris ( if she was happy in this time or not----nobody will ever know )- she died on 12th January 1845.

You can visit her still today:  at the Musée La Rochelle.