The Truth About (French) Cats & Dogs

Frrom time to time we share photos of French cats and dogs from our travels. C’est le moment! Because: the French love les chouchous (their darling pets), just as I do. And now we know why Mona Lisa is smiling.

First up is a dog who is dripping with French cool. As you learned from our last post, The French Pastry Project, we have been visiting Charleston, where there is a wonderful new French patisserie on one of the main streets. This highbrow hound, il s’appel ‘Max’, parked himself out front next to our table, unfazed by the admiring crowds passing by. He was quite happy to pose with fans. Max never budged from his chair, even when his Dad returned to feed him some of his breakfast, with a fork of course. Apparently Max is a beloved regular.

French dogs are highly visible and accompany their owners everywhere, but French cats rule: 1/3 of French homes have one, as opposed to 1/4 for dogs.

On any restaurant terrace in France, you are bound to spot un chien tucked under a chair or a barstool. Always well behaved and calm–don’t know how they do it.

…or in this case, à table and ready to be served. This girl looks dashing in pink.

…and sometimes they just don’t fit, so they are forced to take over the sidewalk, like this good boy in Saint Tropez.

Our southern Burgundy friends have a special cat, Belle Ly (pronounced Bellie) who has made guest appearances on our blog before. Because she loves to pose for photos, and of course because she is tellement belle. Note how she’s positioned herself between the two cat-like statues, like the queen that she is, and at the foot of her catdaddy.

Well, maybe she’s not always so élégante…

Spotted on a tiny terrace in Beaune, a pup who naps in style. Bien gaté, as the French would say: spoiled rotten.

I often spot this chat in his window perch, right on the street, around the corner from our house. But I see him out on the street sometimes too. Shall we name him Dot? Smudge? or Monsieur Squiggles?

This is a house on our street in Beaune. Can you spot the cat?

This post would not be complete without a couple of shots of our adored French cat, Vino Bambino. (I love both cats and dogs, but Ron always says he’s the only thing preventing me from becoming the Crazy Cat Lady with a dozen or three rescue cats). 

Vino Bambino reigns over the household, comme tous les chats.

THE END.

Favorite READS: Remember to check our new sidebar, with books by our authors. Also, you may want to zip over to Karen McCann’s blog post this week, which is on the very current subject of moving to Europe and becoming a part-time expat. She interviewed me for the post, so don’t miss it! Karen’s blog, Enjoy Living Abroad, is always laugh-out-loud funny, so be sure to subscribe while you’re there. Karen splits her time between Seville, Spain, and San Francisco. Check out her book about Spain, Dancing in the Fountain. But she also has a new book out: My San Francisco: 20 Extraordinary Walks in America’s Quirkiest City, which she wrote because SF has gotten a lot of bad press lately, and she says in fact it’s as fabulous as ever.

While looking at books on France, I came across a funny title that animal lovers might want to check out: French for Cats: All the French Your Cat Will Ever Need. (I don’t need to read this one, since Vino was born in France, and is bilingual).

Though we’ve mentioned it before, the all-time funniest book about cats is Henri Le Chat Noir (in English), about a cat in an existential crisis. It’s a short book and I keep a copy in my powder room for guests. It’s really hilarious.

If you are an author and don’t see any of your books listed on the sidebar, drop me an email or a comment and I will add it (This is an ad-free blog, so no income is made from these links).