Les histoires de Babar @ Arts Decoratifs – Paris

Despite living an average of 50 – 70 years the elephant King is already 80, and if no-one kills him (we doubt Laurent de Brunhoff, son of the original creator will), Babar may surely overpass the 82-year old record Raja still holds.

If in your childhood you never read or watched Babar the elephant then you’ve missed a big classic, a bit like not knowing who are the barbapapas or the smurfs. (and note that you didn’t have to be born in the 60s or 70s, books are still being published just like TV series being produced, so no excuse…).

Thank god central Parisian museum “Arts Decoratifs” is dedicating this winter and throughout big part of next year  an exhibition to the art and legend of the always smartly-dressed elephant King Jean de Brunhoff started in 1931. The Arts Décoratifs’ Toy Gallery is celebrating the eightieth anniversary of Babar. The exhibition retraces the adventures of this hero of children’s literature.

All the Babar books are shown, with a selection of a hundred original drawings lent by prestigious French and foreign institutions such as the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Morgan Library and the Mary Ryan Gallery in New York, and also private collectors. Visitors will be able to see Babar adventures taking shape before their eyes, from the initial sketches through to the final coloured pages with text. Soft toys, board games, figurines, wheeled toys will be set in Babar decors including one from the famous Normandie liner, interspersed with archive photographs, present-day Babar products, cartoons and 3D films.

9€ (7,5 for kids) to rediscover the adventures and values of the French elephant, on top of that there’s a long list of workshops, storytellings and other activities around the exhibition you (or your kids) may not miss. Rest of info this way (in French only unfortunately).