Our Favourite Dog-Friendly Restaurants in France

Eating out is the thing that changes most when you take a dog to France. In the UK you plan the day around which pubs will have him; in France you mostly stop planning, walk in, and ask. Dexter, our 11-year-old whippet-cross-collie, came with us for every meal on our last trip, and these three places were the ones we kept talking about afterwards.

Plage de l’Opéra, Nice

A private beach club on the pebbles below the Quai des États-Unis, looking back along the Baie des Anges towards the Colline du Château. We booked a sunbed for the afternoon, and the only question about the dog was whether we wanted a towel put down for him. He spent two hours asleep on it while we ate.

Two things worth knowing if you try this. First, ask about the dog when you book rather than turning up hopeful: public beaches and private clubs run to different rules, and plenty of public beaches in the south ban dogs over the summer. Second, Nice’s beaches are pebble, not sand, and the stones get genuinely too hot for paws in the middle of the day. We carried Dexter the last few metres from the promenade steps, which felt ridiculous and was absolutely the right call.

L’Atelier Gourmet

This was the opposite kind of stop: a courtyard table in the shade, off a cobbled lane, on a day too hot to be out in the sun. There was an old millstone set flat into the pebble paving, and Dexter worked out before we did that it was the coolest surface in the courtyard. He stretched out on it and did not move until we left.

If you are travelling in summer, a shaded courtyard is worth more than a view. We started actively looking for them, and for old buildings with stone or tiled floors, because a cool floor settles a hot dog faster than anything you can offer him.

La Maison d’Églantine, salon de thé

The one that surprised us, because it was inside. A salon de thé with terracotta tiles, mismatched painted furniture, shelves of books and a stack of board games. We asked at the door, got a yes without a pause, and Dexter folded himself onto the cool tiles next to the table.

This is the part UK owners underestimate. Being waved inside, not just onto a terrace, is ordinary in France, and it turns a wet afternoon or a 35-degree one from a problem into a long slow cup of tea.

What we learned about eating out with a dog in France

• Just ask. “Je peux entrer avec le chien?” got us a yes almost every single time. Nobody looked surprised at the question.
• Terraces are the easy option, but inside is usually fine too. We were only turned down once on the whole trip.
• Cool floors beat dog menus. Stone, tile and shade are what an older dog actually wants. No one offered us a dog menu and Dexter did not miss it.
• Carry a collapsible bowl and a thin towel. Water often arrives unasked, but not always, and a towel makes any floor or sunbed his spot.
• Avoid the 12-2 service crush if your dog is big or nervous. Arriving at 2pm meant space, calm staff and a table in the shade.
• Supermarkets are the exception. Restaurants and cafes yes, food shops generally no.

Before you go: the car admin

The dog paperwork gets all the attention, and rightly so, but the car needs sorting too. Nice is inside a low-emission zone, so you need a Crit’Air sticker on the windscreen to drive in, and the same goes for a long list of other French cities. It is £7, it is one-off, and it lasts the life of the vehicle.

Check your car’s Crit’Air category in a few seconds, or read the Nice Crit’Air guide for the zone details.

For the paperwork side, our driving to France with a dog write-up covers the Animal Health Certificate, Le Shuttle and the tapeworm treatment home, and keeping your dog cool in a heatwave is the one to read if you are travelling in July or August. The reference version of the rules lives in Taking a Dog to France.