Jeannot and his Little World

For Georgia and Oscar

Jeannot out after dark

Jeannot is a very young rabbit who lives in the Lot.

Jeannot is very curious and he is always doing things he shouldn’t. Once, without saying a word to anyone, he went all the way to Brittany to meet a pink rabbit, but it was only a big piece of granite.

One night Jeannot went out and crossed the road to try the vegetables in the neighbour’s garden. Around the vegetables there were some blue wires. He ignored them and thought he could wriggle his way through, but when he touched them with his nose he got a big shock. Bzzzzzzz! Zzzzzzzap!

It was like being stung by a big wasp and being banged on the head all at the same time!



Jeannot in the grass forest

 Suddenly Jeannot found that he had become very very small. He was in a forest of blades of grass which were all taller than him and it was broad daylight. It was such a surprise that he didn’t know where he was or where to go, but after a few minutes of hopping around between the blades of grass he heard something chirping loudly nearby.

Connor O'Connor

He hopped towards the sound and he met a conehead cricket. It was all bright green and it was chirping merrily away.

“Hello I’m lost”, said Jeannot. “Please can you tell me where I am?”

“Hello, CHIRP, CHIRP. My name is CHIRP Connor O’Connor CHIRP. Top o’the CHIRP, morning CHIRP to you! CHIRP, CHIRP”.

The chirping was so loud that Jeannot had to cover his ears.
Jeannot asked Connor again where he was, “Excuse me Mr O’Connor but where are we?”

“We are at CHIRP in the CHIRP of CHIRP CHIRP but if you are CHIRP looking for CHIRP, I wouldn’t CHIRP from here CHIRP CHIRP!”
The friendly cricket tried his best to answer but he couldn’t stop chirping and Jeannot couldn’t understand him.  So Jeannot thanked Connor O’Connor and hopped off.

Frou Frou Fritillary

He carried on and very soon he met a beautiful butterfly.

“Hello my name is Jeannot and I’m lost. Please can you tell me where I am?”

“Bonjour, my name is Frou Frou Fritillary. Do you like my black and orange markings? I don’t like blue, but creamy yellow is absolutely divine especially with black stripes! Oh aren’t those swallowtails just gorgeous!”

Jeannot said “black with orange is very fine but please Monsieur Frou Frou, where am I?”

Frou Frou didn’t answer and only asked him another question about colours. “Oh my dear! Don’t you think those peacocks are just too gaudy?”

Jeannot realised that he would get no answer from Frou Frou, so he said goodbye and carried on hopping through the grass.

Praying Mantis

Not far away he saw another green insect, which he thought at first, was a cricket, but this one was very still and silent with its forelegs lifted up and pressed together as if in prayer. It was the same size as Jeannot and it was a praying mantis.

As he got closer it turned its head to face him. Jeannot could remember that his mummy had said something about these creatures, but he couldn’t remember what she had told him. Although he was nervous, he decided to ask where he was anyway.

“Excuse me sir, but I’m lost. Do you know where we are?”

The praying mantis did not answer him but, very slowly and carefully, moving one foot at a time turned its whole body towards him.

Jeannot was very frightened and he ran away.

 

 

La Reine des Araigners

He ran and ran until he saw a spider with yellow and black stripes in a web above him.
Now the spider was bigger than Jeannot, she was clearly a queen among spiders, “une Reine des Araigners”, and Jeannot thought that he should be very polite.

“Excuse me Mme La Reine des Araigners but do you know where we are?” asked Jeannot.

She turned to face him and said. “Why don’t you climb up here into my web, my little one, and I will tell you where you are. I might even find you a special sweetie”.

Jeannot wasn’t very good at climbing, but he quickly found that there were lots of steps in the web, which made it easier. 

Just as Jeannot was getting closer to talk to La Reine des Araigners he felt a drop of rain, saw a big flash and seconds later he heard a big bang.
Suddenly he was awake again, he was the right size, it was night time and a storm was about to break.  He remembered that before he became very small, he was touching the blue wires in front of him with his nose. He was quite sure that he wouldn’t do that again.

He rushed home to his mummy and hid at the end of the burrow. Now mummies always know everything about their own children. So his mummy guessed where he had been and what he had been doing in the neighbour’s garden. She knew all about the blue wires, and she also knew that Jeannot wasn’t frightened by storms, so she guessed why he had run home so fast.
“I told you not to go trying to eat things in the neighbour’s vegetable garden” she said. “One day you’ll listen to me and stop finding everything out the hard way!”

Jeannot stayed at the end of the burrow and kept very quiet.

Outside the storm was really loud and the rain was coming down in bucketfuls but Jeannot was snug and cosy. He decided that he wouldn’t go out again that night.


As he dozed he wondered what he would do tomorrow. He liked the look of the neighbour’s swimming pool it was so inviting on a hot summer night.…………..

You can read more Jeannot stories here:

Jeannot and the Pink Rabbit
Jeannot has a Narrow Escape