Gargouilles are unusual in the world of dragons because they are quiet happy to live near to human beings.
Originally, of course, Gargouilles would have lived on rocky cliffs but, over the years, some of them have found that the grey stone of tall gothic buildings makes the perfect cover.
Gargouilles are nocturnal and hardly move during the day, so they are very difficult to tell apart from the statues that often decorate ancient cathedrals.
A keen student of mine name Dominique Gamay introduced me to a colony of Gargouilles in the Montmartre area of Paris.
Living high on the walls of the Sacre’ Coeur Basilica, they were happy coming down at night to hunt for stray in the Montmartre vineyard until two or three of them were befriended by a so-called dragon tamer named Bad Barbara.
She asked them to make a spectacle of themselves in a little club she owned near the Moulin Rouge that was called the Cirqu des Dragons.
The club soon became packed with artists and intellectuals, all keen to see this latest act and quiet unaware of the danger they were in.
Luckily, after convincing Bad Barbara to leave Paris, we managed to get the Gargouilles to resume their natural habits, to avoid mixing with humans wherever possible.
