Sandy Hobbs | Letters to Ambrose Merton # 3, 1995

Dear Mr Thorns… carried a number of items about crocodiles in France, summed up in "The Crocodile from Paris" (No. 36, pp. 13-15). Veronique Campion-Vincent has sent us a copy of an article in the popular French newspaper, France-Soir, 8th June 1995. Entitled "Cache-Cache Croco å Bry-sur-Marne" (Hide-and-Seek Crocodile at Bry-sur-Marne), it deals with a sighting the previous day in the Eastern suburbs of Paris. We cannot hope to convey the distinctive colloquial style of France-Soir writing. However, the key points of the article are as follows.

The alarm was raised at ten o'clock in the morning of 7th June. Two municipal police officers went and were able to verify with their own eyes that a crocodile was "having a dip" in the river Marne, near 101 quai Louis-Ferber. It was between one and a half and two metres long. Witnesses reported seeing it eat a waterfowl.

Gendarmes, firemen, river police, soldiers and a vet were called called to the scene. The crocodile had taken refuge on an island (called "Amour"!) in the river. Unsuccessful attempts were made to lure the crocodile with bait.

The origins of this "handbag on legs", as France-Soir calls it, are unknown. One theory is that it has escaped from the home of a local enthusiast for exotic pets. A gendarme was quoted as saying that it might have been abandoned by people about to go on holiday, which, he says, happens to tortoises imported from Florida. According to this gendarme, a few months previously, a dead crocodile had been discovered in a pare at Chanpigny, also in the Eastern suburbs of Paris. However, the present crocodileu is "very much alive".

As a security measure, canoing on the river Marne was suspended.