We fell in love with France within the first 30 seconds of watching Amélie and being transfixed by that charm, quirk, and slightly absurdist humour that French cinema delivers so well. Indeed, the genre is replete with wonderful films that ooze this particular brand of bonkers charm. It has produced, honed, and homed some of the world's greatest artists, thinkers, and musicians, and like the protagonist in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" I think you would struggle to find a better era to time travel to than Paris in the 1920s or La Belle Époque. We both have fond memories of time spent in France, breakfast at Ladurée, seeing the Eiffel Tower, artist supply shopping along the Seine, an afternoon in Musée d'Orsay followed by an evening meal at Le Bouillon Chartier might be just about the best way a human can spend a day. We could gush on and on, but it's already getting sickly enough, so we shall press on. This map was a beauty to research and illustrate, containing so many unique creatures and interesting blends that developed due to the relationships with their bordering countries. There were intriguing ties to Cornwall, which I guess makes sense, and we should have expected, but didn't. What was clear was how abundant the mythology is in the Brittany region, which could be a map in its own right. It has pushed Brittany very far up our must-visit list. It has a giant killer snail, which putting aside any French stereotypes I'm sure we can all agree is pretty damn French! Camba-crusa is one of the most bizarre creatures we have encountered to date - a solitary raw leg that will chase you down, carry you away, and devour you. Your guess about how this could occur is as good as ours. There are variations on the theme, all weird, and all resulting in somehow, against all statistical or logical likelihoods, being chewed by a mouthless hopping appendage. The country is brimming with dragons and wyverns, some also have unique and interesting features which is fairly uncommon, mostly they are unnamed and fit to a generic dragon motif. We moved slightly away from the clean, minimal way we usually do typography for this map. We are generally not fans of heavily themed types, they can look awful if you get it wrong (and quite often a bit naff when you get it right). However, If you have the rare opportunity to do some art nouveau lettering in the style of Alphonse Mucha or Hector Guimards iconic Metropolitain signage, well, you just gotta. If it was the right call, we cannot say, but in the words of the indomitable Édith Piaf "Non, Je ne regrette rien". We hope you enjoyed the map "Mythical beasts of France". This post will bring us up to date with the maps created pre website, pre-Púca Printhouse, and pre-Charley joining the team. We are excited to reveal the maps we have been working on during our relocation to the wilderness of Scotland - where we can only receive the internet through a satellite - which seems somehow simultaneously both amazingly futuristic and possibly the worst way to access the internet. The "Mythical Beasts of France" map is now available in our shop. We thank you for the support you show us in keeping this project alive.
All the best
Neil and Charley
at
Púca Printhouse