Madeline, by Ludwig Bemelmans

I agree, one of the loveliest old stories, my son loves this one too.

Good old fashioned picture story book about the antics of a group of little girls in Paris, led by the marvellously feisty Madeline.

When I first read this to my daughter at two and half, she loved the quirky rhymes ("To the tiger in the zoo/Madeline just said pooh-pooh") and still quotes them two years later. The author's illustrations are a lovely introduction to the sights of Paris too.