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For the first time ever, I think I enjoyed a children’s film more than the child I was accompanying! Over the years, I’ve sat through a good many, ranging from the truly horrendous oh-God-please-make-it-stop ones like Pokémon and Garfield II, to the just-about tolerable variety including the less classic Disney films, to the really rather good like Jurassic Park, Les Schtroumpfs and Toy Story, and finally the brilliant, like Shrek. For me Zarafa comes in this last category, but I think it was just OK for Ruadhri. It was slightly traumatic entertainment. Most of the youngest kids were howling at one point or another when beloved characters met untimely endings, although one of these was immediately reincarnated and the second wasn’t actually dead at all!
When you think of the French, you tend to think of robust – the bureaucrats who couldn’t care less about helping you, the drivers who take no prisoners, the elderly ladies who steamroller past you in queues. Zarafa is a robust film. It tackles slavery, colonialism and racism head on. The King, when viewing Zarafa for the first time in his Jardin des Plantes, makes a tasteless joke that one of the monkeys in the zoo has escaped when little African Makis steps up and speaks to him. You wouldn’t get that in a British or American made film, certainly not in kids’ films. It’s definitely cringey, but this is the country where naughty black Smurfs aren’t replaced by purple ones and people say handicappé without a second thought. Tactless it may be, but it made for a very powerful film. No holds barred. It wasn’t overly mawkish à la Disney, but had its hilarious moments and its pathos. It’s a touching, entertaining film. I was engrossed. I don’t see it appealing to more delicate audiences overseas which is a shame, since it’s refreshingly honest and realistic.
 A contemporary sketch of Zarafa from 1827 Most of the film is fiction but it’s based on fact. Zarafa really was the first giraffe to arrive in France in 1824 and she really was a gift from the Pasha of Egypt to the French King, Charles II, in the hopes he would help Egypt. In the film it’s to get French help to beat the Turks who are attacking Alexandria, but in reality it was to try and persuade the French to stop supporting the Greeks, whom the Sultan of Turkey wanted the Pasha to help him fight. The animated Zarafa travels to France in a hot air balloon with two cows to provide her with milk. She continues her journey as far as the mountains when the balloon is damaged. Real Zarafa went by ship with three cows and walked from Marseilles all the way to Paris. In both versions she was a sensation in Paris and giraffe-spotted fabrics and giraffe themed items became all the rage.
All the rest of the film is made up, but it’s well done and as convincing as a cartoon can be. It’s an old fashioned cartoon i.e. with none of the 3D Pixar type effects, and it’s lovely! Maybe I’m slightly biassed since I’ve always loved giraffes. One of my three main toys as a child was a toy giraffe made from flowered cotton and with a black wool mane. I called him Wahay Such Giraffy! I was heartbroken when he eventually fell to bits.
Three cheers for Zarafa!
 Ruadhri and I are off to the cinema a little later tonight to see Zarafa, which is the animated story of France’s first giraffe and his human friend Makis. Zarafa is to be delivered to King Charles X of France as a royal gift from Egypt. Hassan, the desert Prince is entrusted with this mission, but Makis is going to do all he can to keep his friend at home, where he belongs. They travel from the Sudan via Alexandria, Marseilles and the Alps on their way to Paris and encounter all sorts of strange animals on the way, and some pirates. It sounds like it will be fun!
1.3 million French people have already seen this film, which was a relatively cheap one, with a budget of 8.6 million euros. I did say relatively! It’s gone down well so, providing I can stay awake, we should have an enjoyable evening.
The films are shown upstairs at Boussac Mairie in what is a sort of mini lecture theatre. It has tiered rows of proper flip up cinema seats and is very modern. It’s a comfy, low key event since there aren’t any distractions in the form of popcorn, ice-creams or fizzy drinks, which is probably just as well. The whole evening will cost us €9 which is very reasonable – €5 for me, the adult, and €4 for child-rate Ruadhri. Our only complaint is that kids’ films are few and far between. This is the only one that’s been on for ages. Rors is obviously too young for anything other than a U certificate, and I’m not up to coping with grown-up films in French yet. So our night out at the cinema is a rather special treat.
Disappearing under piles of wood and work at the moment, so a very quick blog tonight with a couple of photos of our football crazy lamb!
Normal blogging service will be resumed from tomorrow!
Our next-door-but-two neighbours, a kilometre away, have just celebrated their first anniversary in France. And despite the fact that they’re English expats like us, and that we pass their farm regularly on our way to and from Nouzerines, we haven’t got together very often at all. They’ve had a crazy year settling in, renovating a house and establishing a smallholding and, well, we’ve just had a crazy year with all our various activities. However, we hope to see a lot more of self-sufficient David and Nicole at Buzzycluck Ferme.
We called in yesterday and were amazingly impressed with what they’ve achieved in such a relatively short space of time. First up they have a colossal polytunnel, four or five times the size of ours I would guess.
 It is full of huge, healthy plants including the biggest radishes I have ever seen!
Here’s an interesting way to get a bumper potato crop – grow them in a soil-filled stack of tyres.
 There are a lot of very handsome Buzzycluck bunnies. Chris and I were astonished to hear how much David and Nicole love rabbit meat. We never enjoyed it that much which is why we gave up on our rabbit breeding programme a couple of years ago now. We can only imagine that this variety are rather more tasty than the crossbreed mongrelly ones we produced. David told me what the breed is but I’ve forgotten, I’m afraid. Senior moment.
As the name of the farm suggests, there are plenty of bees and chickens on the farm. These lovely chickens are Gold Laced Orpingtons;
 I love their shelter-cum-feeding-station.
And here are some Sussexes, like our Cynthia:
There are some Buff Orpingtons at the farm too. I learnt something new, which I always like to do. I learnt that you can get saddles for chickens. Not so you can ride them, of course, but to protect them from over-zealous roosters who are pulling too many feathers out during mating.
 Buzzycluck farm also has quail, pheasants and ducks and geese. Gloucester Old Spot pigs and a Jersey cow will be arriving soon.
We left with some bean and pea seedlings, packets of comfrey seeds (pigs love comfrey apparently) and some asparagus. Nicole and David are not only very resourceful but very generous too!
Interestingly there is a connection between Les Fragnes, our farm, and where David and Nicole live. At one time, these properties were owned by the same family. So we have history in common as well as a shared desire to become self-sufficient in meat, egg, fruit and veggie wise.
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