This job comes with a lot of dog books. More dog books than you’d believe were out there. And while most of them go immediately to the free pile — right next to the career advice books, vampire TV series screeners and, sorry kids, your band’s EP — “The French Dog,” like a lot of other dogs, will be coming home.
The idea behind Rachael Hale’s stunning new photography book is simple: Everything looks better in France. Shih tzus scampering through marble-tiled courtyards are somehow fluffier and bulldogs waiting patiently under café tables look more hopeful. Cockerspaniels are at their peak of entitlement when in Parisian sitting rooms and German Shepherds even more noble when on the lookout at the Jardin des Tuileries. If you think you have been truly sassed by a stateside Yorkie, you are wrong.
The book is littered with reflections on living the simple life and letting go and buttering your croissants. Whatever France. I’m now devoting my life to stealing Rachael Hale’s job — and her little corgi, too.
