Paris in the Springtime
By Veronica Noechel
Mar 4, 2007, 12:01
 |
| Even the Egyptian dog at the Louvre knows the "sit" command |
I have to say, the French give dogs a lot of respect. Parisian dogs don't just live the warm and cozy life of le chien du divon, the most common mutt gets more consistent welcome than celebrity dogs do in the United States. Walking down the street, you can bet you will inevitably see dogs greeted with exuberant smiles and squeals of "Chou chou! Chou chou!" before the human holding the leash has even had a chance to make eye contact. In most every store and newsstand, if you aren't greeted with a sniff and a wag, you can bet there's a dog snoozing behind the counter. A hotel that allows dogs? You mean there are ones that don't? How bizarre!
Do restaurants accept dogs? Well, do you plan to order him an entree? Small dogs may even have their own chairs. How else can they follow the conversations? In a city where you may see humans, as well as their canine companions, mark the trees (alas, some traditions die hard), you might think the streets would be filthy and full of dog...er...mess. Yet I didn't find the streets of Paris to be any worse than the streets of any American city. Why? Well, it may be that polite society dictates that you pick up after your dog (trash receptacles seemed much easier to find in Paris than at home, and the sanitation department must empty them every hour to have so few full bins) or it could be the city's cleanup program. Scooter-type vehicles peruse the streets picking up what dogs leave behind. Vacuum units attached to the front of these meter-maidish cars suck up the offending matter so your shoes stay clean. Considering the price of shoes in Paris, they'd better! I had read about these and was very excited to see my first "motocrotte," which translated literally would be a "crapmobile," though it's probably more polite to call them "pooper scooters" in mixed company.
With all this adoration and hoopla, I was disappointed to see along the Seine lives a tradition we'd all like to see broken. Seedy pet stores selling sick looking animals are rife among the wholesale shops. Puppies are crowded, conditions are anything but veterinary sanitary, and the stench is more than any motocrotte could fix. They are also sprinkled around town, puppy-in-the-window style. While these places did seem fairly deserted, I was hoping for more from a city otherwise so obsessed with the well being of its canine residents. This is one idea we could stand to share across the ocean: pet boutiques? Oui! Selling animals in stores like discount goods? Non!
© Copyright
1999-2004. DoggieFun.com, LLC. Do not reproduce and/or distribute
without written permission.