12 | August | 2012 | laurieanichols

Tags

dogs, France, french people, postaday2012

This trip is the first time that I noticed the importance of the canine species to the average French person. I don’t know where my observational skills were for all those years of visiting, I know that I am seriously one of the least observational people that you will ever meet, but in this case I’m flabbergasted that I had never noticed the life of a French dog until now. It is that blatantly obvious, I guess that I was seriously distracted by other things. Don’t remember what though.

French dogs are allowed everywhere, I saw them in the Galeries Lafayette, a huge department store. They were involved in the daily shopping done at the open marche where the habitual stand owners knew their loyal customers by name and the type of cheese their dog liked as a treat. I saw the little pooches sit at the table with their owner at cafe’s and brasserie’s. Dog owners walking up to each other, while their respective dogs got to know one another, would compare notes and exchange stories.

It is incredible how much the French people love their dogs, it warms my heart. I love my two dogs, Rex the German Shepard and Jack the Jack Russell Terrier, and seeing all of these happy dogs makes me miss my two even more. I can see Jack happily strutting his stuff along the Promenade des Anglais here in Nice. I can visualize Rex laying next to our table majestically for everyone to admire, he likes it when we admire him. This grand life for dogs is another plus in the retiring to France column, the pluses are by far outnumbering the negatives.