Bizarre, bat-eared, wrinkly and bonkers — so how did French bulldogs win over the world?

‘A cynical person, asked to solve the conundrum, “When is a bulldog not a bulldog?” might be disposed to reply, “When he is a Bouledogue Français,”’ quipped Country Life at the turn of the 20th century.

Citing the French bulldog’s ‘bat ears’, less projected jaw, lack of furrow in the skull, and large eyes, the author nonetheless went on to conclude that ‘as all these characteristics were present in the small English bulldogs of fifty or sixty years ago, there is substantial ground for the belief that both are of the same stock’ — thus overturning the conclusion of a different article a year earlier, that ‘the word “bulldog” applied to this breed is a misnomer’ as ‘the Bouledogue Français certainly resembles more closely the Boston terrier’.

Despite its name, the Frenchie does not solely owe its existence to dedicated breeders in France. In the past, perhaps unsurprisingly, French breeders hotly contested the role the British played in the dog’s origin, but it is now generally accepted that the breed is a descendant of the English bulldog and its lineage traces back to the British toy bulldogs of the 1850s that had long been popular in the Midlands.

When Nottingham lace-makers emigrated to France during the Industrial Revolution, they took their little bulldogs with them. There, they are thought to have been crossbred with other short-faced types, eventually resulting in the ‘Frenchie’ as we know it. ‘It is quite understandable that the Parisiennes, with their love of the bizarre and the petite, may have welcomed these little dogs,’ Country Life reported in 1957.

It was not long before the vivacious little dog ‘full of courage, yet with clown-like qualities’, captured the hearts of locals, being first prized by street traders and courtesans. The breed would appear in paintings by Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec — the latter would depict a French bulldog, Bouboule, at the Moulin Rouge in several works — and soon they became a status symbol of the upper classes and wealthy Americans travelling to Paris in the late 1800s.

According to the ship records of RMS Titanic, a French bulldog named Gamin de Pycombe, belonging to US banker Robert Daniel, went down with the ship in 1912 (his owner survived). In the early scenes of the 1997 film, a Frenchie is shown boarding the boat.

In Britain, King Edward VII was a great admirer of the breed and owned several, notably his beloved brindle dog called Peter. This royal patronage may have had some influence with The Kennel Club, who unbent slightly in 1905 and allowed bouledogues français to be registered as a ‘sub-variety of Foreign Dogs’, and in 1912 the club capitulated and acknowledged French bulldogs as a separate breed.

Country Life would celebrate the ‘neat little Frenchman whose contour seldom brings to mind a roly-poly pudding, or is disfigured by blubber that effectually destroys any shapeliness’ and advised that ‘the ideal French bulldog is smart and cobby, strongly built without being coarse, and displaying an activity that is superior to that of the English bulldog’.

By 1939 Country Life accepted that French bulldogs presented a very distinct type, a fact that caused the late Colonel F. Romilly to write: ‘The essential characteristics of French bulldogs are as redolent of France as the bouquet of her wines, combining the exquisite quality of Bordeaux, the glorious vitality of Burgundy, the exhilarating sparkle of Champagne with the culminating satisfaction of an eau de vie of purest Cognac.’

Clownish is also a description long associated with the Frenchie — Will Judy wrote of the breed in the 1936 Dog Encyclopaedia: ‘He may look serious but he is a laughing philosopher ... He is always a clown.’

Enthusiasm for this cheerful, wrinkly-nosed dog may stem largely from its endearingly comical appearance — with its big bat or ‘tulip-shaped’ ears, sturdy body, and exaggerated features — but also from its role within celebrity culture.

The breed has always had a certain je ne sais quoi that appeals to the rich and famous. Yves Saint Laurent owned four; D. H. Lawrence wrote poetry about his ‘bat eared dog’, Bibbles; and Nancy Mitford had three, presumably inspiring Plon-plon, the little French dog in The Pursuit of Love. The breed even appealed to Russian royalty — Ortipo, the mischievous Frenchie belonging to Grand Duchess Tatiana Romanov, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, is mentioned frequently and fondly in the family diaries.

In recent years, the Rockefellers, the Morgans, the Bloombergs, Lady Gaga, Reese Witherspoon, Martha Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Leonardo DiCaprio, the Beckhams, and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps have all been confirmed Frenchie fans.

The late Carrie Fisher’s therapy dog, Gary, was a popular fixture on the red carpet, and renowned dog lover and actor Tom Hardy even took his French bulldog Blue to a film screening in 2021, posing for photographs in Leicester Square, London.

This is an extract from 'The Country Life Book of Dogs' (Rizzoli, £50) by Agnes Stamp.