Meet Zarafa the Giraffe who became 
the darling of France

A diplomatic gift from the Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt to King Charles X in 1826, Zarafa was the first giraffe to ever be seen in France. By the time she arrived in the Port of Marseille in October 1826 having sailed across the Mediterranean, she had traveled 2,000 miles down the Nile on a specially constructed barge, accompanied by three cows that provided her with 25 liters of milk each day.
The remaining 900km journey to Paris was made on foot and took 41 days. With her custom coat, shoes and a large entourage including the naturalist Etienne Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, she was a spectacle in each town she passed, including Aix-en-Provence, Avignon and Lyon. Zarafa was presented to the King at the Château de Saint-Cloud in Paris on 9 July 1827, and took up residence in the Jardin des Plantes.

Inspiring Balzac and Flaubert, Zarafa was a national sensation and inspired fashions and colors of the time. Today, she is the star of our La Savane collection, and the wonder she inspired continues.

Shop the 'La Savane' collection HERE