Wednesday, April 23, 2008

French Poodles and Friends

Clomping along the sidewalk on boulevard Montparnasse, I happened upon this little TouTou standing guard at the shop door. Seeing it made me pause for thought. I realized that I rarely see French poodles here.

Paris is a dog-lovers city, no doubt, but in my experience the iconic poodle isn't that much in evidence. Apparently in all of France, poodles still top the list of most-popular purebreds at 9%, but that hardly qualifies them as being predominant as a stereotype.

But I do see lots of Jack Russells, a fair share of arthritic Labradors, plenty of frisky bouledogues, and many, many endearing mutts. But rarely a frou-frou Fifi of poodle-skirt fame.

I love watching dogs almost as much as I love watching people in Paris. Put them together, and it's a blast.

A while back, I witnessed an entertaining Parisian doggie interlude. A man was walking his Great Dane on a quiet street in the St. Paul area, and had taken the well-mannered dog off the leash, as dog-owners often do -- illegally.

A Norwich Terrier came prancing down the opposite sidewalk with a fussy lady at the other end of the leash. The terrier began yapping at the Great Dane, who started to lumber across the street for a friendly sniff.

"Mais monsieur," screeched the lady as her minuscule dog barked convulsively, "keep your dog on a leash!!"

"Don't worry, madame," joked the man with a shrug, unruffled. "He's already had breakfast."

5 comments:

Auntie Nic said...

Love your blog! Love dogs!

Polly-Vous Francais said...

Thanks, Nikki! More dog stories to come.

Always more dog stories in Paris!

KatBouska said...

This was really cute! Love your blog!!

Anonymous said...

So funny! How about French bulldogs, see many of those?

Polly-Vous Francais said...

Hi Jadie,
The bulldogs are bouledogues (literally how its spelled...)

Lots!

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