Mr Chicken Goes to Paris

Or why I'm jealous of a 4 metre roast chicken.

Mr Chicken was a character in one of Leigh Hobbs' previous books, Horrible Harriet. I'm not sure that I understand the appeal of Mr Chicken to young children, but Horrible Harriet was very successful, and so has Mr Chicken Goes to Paris. What is the appeal of a 4 metre roast chicken travelling to Paris to visit his friend Yvette, to take in the sights? I'm not exactly sure. I can certainly appreciate the allure of the French capital. But what does the average Aussie 3 year old make of this? Who can tell?

Mr Chicken certainly does take in all the hightlights. It's like we had the same holiday. Mr Chicken went to the Arc de Triomphe.

I went to the Arc de Triomphe

Mr Chicken visits the Mona Lisa at the Musee de Louvre.

I visited La Gioconda for the second time. It was even more ridiculous than it was the first time. The first time in 1998 she was behind glass. In 2010 she is behind glass, and then two wooden barricades to keep the marauding tourists at bay.

Mr Chicken takes the Metro to the Eiffel Tower

I of course spied the Eiffel Tower from every vantage point, and even dined at the wondrous Le Jules Verne on Level Two.

up close and personal

Up close and personal with their delicious butter shaped into a replica second level

Mr Chicken visits Notre Dame and has his heart set on the roof top tour.

I had my heart set on the roof top tour also. And I never got there. I lined up once, but the line was absolutely not moving so I had to give up after 20 minutes or so. I made a special trip back to Notre Dame one evening to go up to the roof, but had misread the sign and gone on a day it was shut!

Ferme

So I have still only ever gazed upward longingly at those magnificent gargoyles.

And a 4 metre roast chicken has done the roof top tour that I haven't done! So of course I'm jealous. But we'll always have Paris. And next time I'm going to be up there amongst the gargoyles with Mr Chicken.

This July I'll be trying to think and blog about Paris, even more than I usually do. Well now I have an official excuse. I'm participating in Paris in July and Kid Konnection at Booking Mama.