Imagine if you were fifty years old and still at primary school. Known as just Nicholas for English readers, this drawn character – a young schoolboy from the fifties – is a French institution, after having been created in 1959! Now the Paris City Council has organised an exhibition all about him.

Nicolas is the brainchild of Jean-Jacques Sempé and René Goscinny (Goscinny was half the team behind the Asterix characters). After a quick apparition in a newspaper in 1959, he then became a staple of kids magazine Pilot and soon migrated to numerous books. The sweet graphic style and simple values of the stories (sweets, friends, school, parents…) appeal to everyone’s nostalgic side.

The exhibition at Hôtel de Ville shows 150 original drawings by Sempé, accompanied by Goscinny’s manuscripts, a reconstruction of the latter’s office including soem of his favourite objects (un paperweight, an alarm clock, a porcelain chicken, his Larousse dictionary…) and some little films.

Great timing too, as the first live action Petit Nicolas film i sset to be released in France this autumn. Here’s the first trailer (good for improving your French!)