Cat Café - Le Café des Chats - Le Marais - Paris

I went to visit one of the two 'Café des Chats' in Paris, last week. This one was in Le Marais, not far from the Beaubourg centre - the other is near La Bastille.

Well, the concept is pretty easy to grasp; since 2013, visitors to these establishments have been able to eat and drink surrounded by friendly felines.

Affable yet suitably aloof, these former rescue cats are in their element. Free to roam or relax, they focus on their human guests or to simply turn their backs on them with typical feline nonchalence.

Depending on their passing fancy, the cats may fleetingly visit your table or chair and rummage through any of your possessions..

Given the slightest occasion, they will gladly relieve you of a few choice morsels from your plate or fork, and then race off, revealing die-hard street-cat ruses. Some of them seem to have perfected their technique to an art, as visitors are not actually allowed to feed the cats!

Should they find things to their liking, they may stay a little longer, or not.... In which case, the cats will watch over their visitors from a dignified distance and/or height, peering out from the various perches or strategic points around the room.

For in fact, just as much as the cats are observed, they themselves observe us, each other and even the  odd passing dog...

And when that requires too much effort, they can always recline and roll up together in the café window...

The owner of the cafés is putting the business up for sale, yet hopefully there will be a long and prosperous future for these establishments, part of whose profits are given to cat protection associations.

Of course, such a café would not be to the taste of everybody, for obvious reasons. However, there is already history between Paris and the symbolic cat figure, but that will be for another post...