Birthplace of Harry Potter, Edinburgh, Scotland
![Elephant_house Elephant_house](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/12/127042/elephant-house-uk-usa-france-L-WW6j2Z.jpeg)
Lucy the Elephant, still there in Margate City, New Jersey
![Elephant Elephant](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/12/127042/elephant-house-uk-usa-france-L-Vs_sgH.jpeg)
Did you know that Paris might have had an enormous elephant instead of the Arc de Triomphe if Napoleon had not been defeated? He loved the idea and wanted a huge bronze elephant to stand where the Bastille fortress had been torn down. A large plaster elephant was erected in 1814 and stood for more than thirty years-- in Les Misérables, the tattered urchins of Paris, including Gavroche, take refuge inside it.
![Built by Louis XIs dr Built by Louis XIs dr](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/12/127042/elephant-house-uk-usa-france-L-zAoBnb.jpeg)
The house called "la maison de l'éléphant" (because an elephant was carved over the door) was built by the doctor to King Louis XI. I love how you can just walk around Paris in a touristy street, Saint-André-des-Arts, and see that the house was built in 1467. Even better, by now it has good plumbing!