European travels of a chocoholic London lover
Cats are the best, aren’t they? This is my cat Munchkin sleeping gracefully on my husband’s gym clothes 🙂 Cats can be described as cute, playful, mischievous, adorable, independent, intelligent, resilient, resourceful but also graceful.
Do you agree with me? Are you a cat person too?
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You can skip the intro about my cats and go straight to the second paragraph about the cat café
I have always wanted to have a pet. Preferably a dog. I’ve had budgies when I was a kid but you can’t really cuddle with a bird, can you? But then when I was 15 my parents finally conceded to my plea for a pet and we got a cat. He was just a kitten when we got him from my mum’s friend and he was a mix breed between a Siamese (or a Birman?) and some unknown ordinary cat breed. I named him after a dog from the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton: Timmy. He had the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen and he’d been my best companion for 11 years until he sadly passed away. I thought I’d never get another cat in my life.
However, when I moved in with my future husband I managed to convince him to get a cat even though he was a self-proclaimed dog-person (having never owned any pet but a hedgehog previously). We adopted our cat Munchkin (my husband named him after a board game) from an animal organization and he’s been bringing us joy and happiness (and occasional dead bird and lizards) ever since we got him as a 2.5 month old ginger-white kitten.
I’m a crazy cat lady and naturally when I recently read about a cat café in Nice I knew I just had to visit it on my next business trip to Nice. Last Friday I had some free time after my work obligations and I went to look for the cat café–La Ronronnerie. It’s not situated in the usual tourist part of Nice but it’s not difficult to find it. It’s in the street Rue Lepante 4. And you can easily reach it from the high street Avenue Jean Medecin. It’s not far away. There’s a school near the cat café actually. I looked at the café from across the street and then walked over and entered. However, the waiter told me they were full and that I might want to come back in 20 minutes or so when he expects to have some free seats. Of course, I wanted to see the cats so I walked around for a bit and then decided to have lunch somewhere near and to return afterwards to the cat café. I had a lovely lunch and returned to the cat café La Ronronnerie after 2 pm and this time I was lucky:there was place for me.
First impressions: There was a big sign in French with rules at the entrance. The café looked comfortable and simple and there were different cat toys and cat paths on the walls. I saw one black cat sitting lazily in an armchair and another one snuggled in a cat basket next to a bunch of people. Everyone was talking and enjoying their drinks/meals seemingly unfazed by the presence of the cats.
Don’t you just love them? Even if they jump on your Christmas tree and knock it down for the umpteenth time. And break a cherished Christmas bauble and destroy the Christmas lights but luckily avoid to be electrocuted by them?Of course, I’m talking about cats!
We’ve got a new Christmas tree this year because our previous one was really old and started to look rather sad and run down. We haven’t put up the new tree just yet but I’m worried what’ll happen once we do. It’s quite bigger than the last one so it’ll have a lot more decorations too. Hopefully my cat won’t be able to knock it down that easily anymore. But if he does, I just hope the tree doesn’t hurt him. And I also hope that my cat doesn’t destroy my lovely Christmas baubles from my trips. I’ve got a few special Christmas tree decorations from Oslo and Austria 🙂
My family’s tradition is to put up the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve day (24th Dec) but I like to do it a bit earlier, just after my birthday passes. So, the operation Christmas tree will start next week!:) And I’ll decorate the house a bit as I usually do. I still haven’t finished my Christmas shopping because I’ve been away for work quite a lot this month (Vienna).
So, have you got a cat? Or a dog? Do they attack your Christmas tree? Have you already done up your house for Christmas?
Merry Christmas!
XOXO
Tanja
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Warning! Proceed with extreme caution if you don’t like cats!
I love cats. There’s one cute ginger tomcat that wakes me up every morning with his meow Feed me, Pet me. Although he treats me like I’m his servant I adore him to bits. I’d bite my husband’s head off if he would even think of behaving like our cat does. On the other hand my husband sometimes complains that I’m much nicer to our cat than I am to him 🙂 . But that’s normal for cats and cat parents and if you’re a dog person then you can’t understand this special relationship between the so-called cat owner and their pet. Sadly, our cat can’t join me on my travels (however,there are some cool cats that travel with their servants 🙂 ) which means that I have to leave him in the loving hands of his cat grandparents (e.g. my parents). He likes spending time in their place and they adore having him around. But for some reason or another I often seem to come across cats on my travels. And what do I do then? I take a picture of that foreign cat and try to pet it. And in that moment I miss my cat and wish that he could travel with me.
So, I wanted to show you photos of the cats that I came across on my trips. I didn’t go through all of my photos (just the most recent ones) because then this post would never happen. Some of the cats that I encountered were someone’s pets while others were street cats. I saw some in the streets while others in the park or at a historic monument and some even showed up outside my hotel room.
Without further ado here are the cats from around Europe:
