Rachael Phillips

The Christmas when Parisians ate the zoo

The festive menu in 1870 included donkey, elephant, bear and camel

  • From Spectator Life
Parisians buy cat, dog and rat meat at a butcher on Boulevard Haussmann during the Siege of Paris [Alamy]

Already a subscriber? Log in

This article is for subscribers only

Get a free bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label when you subscribe to The Spectator for just £12 in our Black Friday sale

  • Free bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky, worth £30
  • Unlimited access to our website and app
  • Enjoy Spectator newsletters and podcasts
  • Explore our online archive, going back to 1828

Read next

Trending

Graeme Thomson

What a remarkably bad electric guitar player Bob Dylan is

From the magazine
Finally, a taste of the authentic Bob Dylan live experience. On the two previous occasions that I’ve seen Dylan, in the early 2000s and again two years ago, he was disappointingly well-behaved for a man with a reputation for operating a scorched-earth policy towards his catalogue. Once upon a time, seeing Dylan live was a

More on food

Also by Rachael Phillips

Latest

Comments

Black Friday sale: Get 10 weeks for just $1

Unlimited access to the The Spectator, online and via the app

Already a subscriber? Log in