To accomplish the scene in which Zazie and Uncle Gabriel walk down the street while the rest of Paris zips by at hyper speed, Louis Malle had his cinematographer under-crank the movie camera, allowing only 12 frames of film to pass through the camera each second. The typical speed is 24 frames per second. Then, he had Zazie and Uncle Gabriel walk in slow motion while the people in the background walked at a regular pace. Then, when the film is projected at the usual speed of 24 frames per second, the stars appear to be walking at a normal rate while the people in the background appear to be be zipping by.
The original novel written in 1959 by Raymond Queneau was ranked #36 in the list of the "100 Books of the 20th Century", according to a poll conducted in the spring of 1999 by the French retailer Fnac and the Paris newspaper Le Monde.
The tour bus with the bizarre "Jetson" styling is one of the rare Citroën U55 Cityrama Currus buses operated by Groupe Cityrama, one of many city tour companies in Paris. The style was intentional as to stand out among the fierce competition. Only one is widely confirmed to have survived today and is currently undergoing extensive restoration.
En route to Uncle Gabriel's apartment, Zazie has several Paris landmarks pointed out to her, including the Pantheon and Les Invalides (neither of which is the real landmark). All of these are the same building, the twin-towered Church of St. Vincent de Paul, on Rue La Fayette.