Today, I visited “Le Café des Chats”, a cafe filled with cats.

The outside of the café.

The concept of a coffee house and kitty petting zoo originated in Japan, and has only recently opened in Paris.  I had heard of it long before I moved abroad, which proved important, as reservations must be made weeks in advance.  The café has a food menu, as well as a biography for each of the twelve cats that live there.

Some of the kitty bios.

Initially, the cats presented as very Parisian, uninterested in our (literal) catcalls, and appeared to be trained to turn away whenever one attempted to take a picture.

However, as time went on and the cats noticed I was wearing a beret, they began to hang out with us and let us hold them in our laps.  I was struck by how light they felt in comparison to my bowling ball of a cat at home, but also saddened that I didn’t have have his big warm body to hug.

Even though it’s not my cat, I’m clearly still pretty happy about holding it.

All in all, it was a great experience, I will absolutely return to “Le Café des Chats“.