Victor Hugo “The Miserables”. Illustration by Brion. Engraving of the edition Ollendorff 1906. The elephant...

Victor Hugo “” Les Miserables””, Illustration by Brion. Engraving of the edition Ollendorff 1906. The elephant of the Bastille: on 2/12/1808, was laid in Place de la Bastille in Paris, the first stone of a grandiose fountain in the shape of an elephant, which was to celebrate the meeting of the waters of the Ourcq Canal with the water of the Seine, thanks to an underground canal crossing the square. In 1812, a life-size model, 24 m high, made of plaster with metal frame, was made on site. She remained there until 1847 and Victor Hugo became the refuge of her heros Gavroche in the novel Les Miserables, published in 1862. See also GUT0549.