Have you ever met someone you know or spotted anyone famous whilst you were on holiday? Not something I expected to happen to me in Paris, but whilst we were strolling through Montmartre I unexpectedly glimpsed a familiar face.Hiding down a side street and smiling down at us was the unmistakeable grin of a certain yellow cat. This probably doesn't mean anything to most people, but I got slightly excited because he is kind of an old friend. One of my favourite comic books is Chroniques d'un pigeon parisien, in which author/artist Pome Bernos tells us some tales from the life of a solitary pigeon. Our feathered hero meets up with le chat jaune, l'homme blanc and others, in a wonderfully inventive tale that was apparently inspired by some of the grafitti in Paris.
This isn't the version of the cat whose photo appears in the back of the book, but I was pleased to see him anyway. I suspect that there are many grinning cats like this one if you know where to look. Then I turned around and came face to face with l'homme blanc, or was it one of his brothers?
The students humoured me politely as I told them about this comic book, although they did show some enthusiasm when I told them about the space invaders that have popped up around Paris (and which also feature in the pigeon's tales, as well as starring in a book of their own). Unbeknown to me, one of them was waiting for us at our next venue. Splendid.
