Wanting to enjoy a quiet dinner with his friends, Galimar gives his servants, Guignol and Cadet, five francs and permission to stay out until midnight, so they decide to go to a restaurant. Meanwhile, Fanchette and Gnafron recount the pranks Guignol has played on them: leaving a restaurant without paying the bill, and borrowing a watch only to pawn it. To get their own back, they decide to set a trap for him by leaving an abandoned baby in his care. But Galimar adopts the child and gives Guignol and Cadet a hundred francs to find a nanny for him. Fanchette and Gnafron force Guignol to pay them back.

Glove-puppet

Not specified

France

Lyon

Typewriting

Money

Revenge

Adoption

Pawning

Restaurant

Inheritance

Child

Invitation

Swindling

Large family

Child abandonment

Comical

Farcical

French

Le Poupon abandonné

L'enfant abandonné

Guignol

Cadet

Gnafron

Fanchette

Baby

Plot twist

Trap

Final song

Les Mésaventures de Fanchette

The Misadventures of Fanchette. The abandoned child

Jeannot, a child who has a third eye, is adopted by Clémence and Prudent. They take Jeannot to see a doctor who wants to perform surgery on him. Jeannot rebels and a temporary solution is found: his third eye will be blindfolded so that the child can get used to having two eyes and prepare for the future. For a week, Jeannot lives with his eye covered but becomes sick with melancholy. Clémence decides that he will go to school without covering his eye. On the first day, the other children are either surprised or scared, then they are impressed by Jeannot’s “supersonic” eye. Soon enough, they no longer pay attention to that eye, but they pay attention, rather, to what it makes him see. Jeannot contradicts the schoolteacher regarding Romeo and Juliet, and he is chased out of the classroom. Mariette, a classmate, tells him that she shares his point of view. The head of school tells Clémence and Prudent that their son has been expelled for a week. Mariette pays a visit to Jeannot who is stuck in the house, and she reveals to him that she also has a third eye. They dance together until they are interrupted by the arrival of Mariette’s parents. When Jeannot goes back to school, a student mocks him. Mariette defends Jeannot by showing her third eye to everybody in the classroom, which terrifies the schoolteacher, who thinks there is an epidemic. Some parents take legal action and sue for voluntarily contaminating other children. The judge, who is understanding, thinks that Jeannot can see the colour of the human soul thanks to his third eye. Jeannot asks to become an emancipated minor in order to leave on his own, without his parents. His request having been accepted, Jeannot leaves, although it is difficult to accept for Clémence and Mariette. The narrator reveals herself to be Mariette, who has grown old: it is the day of her birthday and she wishes to see Jeannot again more than anything.