Why a dog’s life in Paris beats Australia

FORGET the cheese and wine and their inability to get fat, there’s one thing the French do really well. Perhaps it’s something our nanny state could learn from.

It’s a dog’s life in Paris, if you’re a little canine like this guy. Picture: Diana Bowman

DOGS have a special place in Parisian society.

Terriers, pugs, dachshunds, poodles and hounds of all shapes and sizes enjoy a cosmopolitan life in Paris, accompanying their humans to restaurants, shops and even on public transport.

Sure, we have all seen the exaggerated version of the “dogs in Paris” cliche in films and TV shows, but there is a difference between seeing Carrie Bradshaw propped up beside a drooling Mastiff in a fancy tea salon and actually seeing how Parisian dogs trot about town on a daily basis.

Excuse me, but I believe this is a nonsmoking area. Picture: HBO

When you see a dog attablé in a restaurant for the first time, it may come as a bit of a shock.

Like this little guy, who I spotted just casually sitting up after dinner at the super cute Bistro Ernest on the Left Bank:

Qui prend un digestif? Picture: Diana Bowman

Far from his usual hobbies of chasing wild boars (sangliers) and digging holes, this little teckel was more interested in deciding whether to have a dessert or just a disgestif. This was a truly Parisian dog.

In Australia, a dog’s life is very different.

When I was home in Melbourne a few Christmases ago, I was shocked that a cafe would not even let my dog sit on the veranda out the front of the restaurant, citing “Health and Safety regulations”. Instead my poor pooch, much to his horror, had to be tied up on the other side of the footpath.

Unlike this Parisian pooch. Picture: Diana Bowman

Alas, things had only escalated by last Christmas. Not only was my pooch not allowed to enjoy his lattée al fresco at his favourite beachfront cafe, he now found that he was banned from his favourite holiday pastime of strolling along the beach and stopping to sniff any gross-looking things along the way.

On Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula (where my dog likes to retreat for the summer), during daylight savings time dogs are now banned on many of the front beaches from 9am until 7pm (i.e., peak strolling and sniffing time). And dogs have been entirely banned from the back beaches (albeit for a good cause, the protection of the hooded plovers).

While some of these regulatory changes have good reasons behind them, many people see them as representative of a more general anti-dog attitude in Australia.

Why are things different in Paris? One reason for the heightened canine presence (and acceptance) in human spaces might be the size of peoples’ apartments. When your doggie is cooped up in a 30sq m apartment all day (and with no backyard) it’s only natural that you would want to take him out and show him the town. Hence the presence of pooches in shops, offices, hair/nail salons, and everywhere in between.

Which way to the mens’ shoe department? Picture: Diana Bowman

I’m gonna get my nails did. Picture: Diana Bowman

But dogs don’t have free rein over the city, either. Rather, as I learned from chatting with a dog-owner recently, dogs are ironically banned from a majority of the city’s parks and green spaces.

This might be another reason why they are allowed just about everywhere else.

NO happily jaunting with your dog, NO feeding the ducks and NO walking on the grass (can’t you see it is sleeping for the winter?!) Picture: Diana Bowman

Why the ban in parks? Well, from the dog-owners I have spoken to it seems to be the related to the petit problème of dogs doing their business. This seems like a plausible explanation. Parisian gardens are so beautiful, perfectly symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing, I can well imagine the authorities not wanting to tarnish that image with unsightly crottes de chien.

And let there be no doubt, the Parisian authorities feel strongly about this. The fine for not picking up after your pup, at least in theory, is up to 450 euro.

To put that into perspective, that is 10 times the fine for not having a valid metro ticket and nearly 30 times the fine for parking your car illegally (at the moment you face a fine of only 17 euro if you park illegally in Paris; this is set to rise, but apparently now not until after the next Presidential election, #France).

So the incentive is there (at least when it comes to poop scooping), but do Parisians actually respect the rules? Well, judging by the amount of crottes that litter the footpaths it seems not. And you do occasionally see dogs in the parks where they are supposed to be banned, like this adorable little rule-breaker Henri who I saw out strolling in the Place des Vosges:

#Thuglife Picture: Diana Bowman

I was told by Henri’s owner that if you break the rules and walk your dog in a garden where they are banned, you usually have around seven to 10 minutes before the gardien (caretaker) of the garden comes and kicks you out. In theory you could also face a fine but, like lots of good French rules, it seems that this is rarely enforced.

As for public transport, Parisian dogs are allowed to travel on the metro if they pass the basket test. Basically, if you can fit your dog into a small bag or basket (panier) then he can travel with you. Just ask this little basket-sized guy, out for his morning commute in his raincoat:

Métro-Boulot-Dodo Picture: Diana Bowman

Or this little one out riding the rails on a Saturday afternoon:

If you’re gonna put me in a basket it had better be pink! Picture: Diana Bowman

A similar rule applies for domestic Air France flights (the dog must weigh 8kg or less to travel in the cabin with you).

Now the French are famously tetchy when it comes to privacy and droit à l’image generally (literally, the right to control your “image”) - just ask the guy who is being sued by former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen after snapping a selfie with him while he was snoozing on a plane.

But not so when it comes to Parisians and their dogs. Parisian dog-owners are only too happy to have their pooches photographed and to parade them around until you get the perfect shot, as I discovered on a recent stroll in the über-trendy Marais district in Paris.

After their posing efforts, it would be entirely remiss of me not to include them all here (and also they are just too damned cute not to be shared), so here we go:

Picture: Diana Bowman

Picture: Diana Bowman

Picture: Diana Bowman

Picture: Diana Bowman

Picture: Diana Bowman

Picture: Diana Bowman

And last but not least, Diana’s dog Rory. Picture: Diana Bowman

All of this leads me to believe that my very photogenic dog Rory (pictured above avec latté), who is currently living in Melbourne, would love to live in Paris. He loves nothing more than sitting up at the table for the chats after a meal. He does not tolerate the company of other dogs, but instead prefers to hang with the human folk.

So there is no doubt in my mind that Rory would love la vie parisienne. He just needs to lose a few kilograms so he can fit into a small basket.

Diana Bowman writes the blog You Know You’re Turning Parisian When ... You can follow Turning Parisian on Facebook and Twitter.

Originally published as Why a dog’s life in Paris beats Australia