What else would a dog travel blogger do on her first full day in Paris but drag her husband (and her dog, but Chloe hardly needed dragging) to pet stores? Both are in the Marais neighborhood, and one (BHV La Niche) I’ve written about before. It’s still going strong in its location behind the main BHV store, at 42 rue de la Verrerie:

The big orange statues are outside BHV LA Niche now, perhaps to free up more space inside (every square foot is needed!)

One difference I noticed was that all the pet carriers I looked at were from the same German company, Trixie — not a bad thing, but I missed the variety of brands (and the handful of high-end options, like the snazzy Milk & Pepper tote I bought) that were on the shelves last time. Speaking of Trixie, one of the available options was their Trolley, which is a dead ringer for Snoozer’s medium Roll Around — a carrier big enough to fit Chloe and equipped with wheels and backpack straps. Like the medium Roll Around, it’s a hair larger than I’d like for in-cabin use, but people with stronger nerves than mine do use it successfully. The Snoozer Roll Around doesn’t seem to be available on amazon.co.uk or amazon.fr or amazon.de, but the Trixie Trolley is.

Nowadays, BHV La Niche has a competitor right around the corner and up a block or so. Moustaches, located at 32 rue des Archives, has a similar vibe, but I think I prefer it to BHV La Niche — I saw more interesting and useful products there, and it was a bit less crowded.

Like La Niche, it has gear in the front and food in the back (and the food includes Orijen, a high-quality option I didn’t notice on La Niche’s shelves). Here are two panoramas I took, the first from the front part of the store, where most of the gear is located, and the other from the food/litter/toys/unguents section in back.

Click on this thumbnail panorama to see a larger version

Same for this thumbnail of the back of the store — click on it to see a larger version

We managed to leave without buying anything at either store, though I was sorely tempted at Moustaches by a pink latex oinking pig toy (also from Trixie, which is clearly a powerhouse of a pet supply company). Our visit has just begun, though — I’ll be back, for sure.