An American chat noir, our black cat in Paris, France, a cat adventure story…
By David Stone
Assorted Ideas, Large & Small
I usually don’t remember where I get the ideas for my stories. Mostly, they pull together out of a disorderly mess of inspirations, successful as they accumulate a little more heft than others.
But I remember where the story that resulted in Chat Noir originated. It wasn’t, as you might guess, in France.
- See also: Cats in Paris Cards
We spent a week in Amsterdam one year, excited about its canals, history and freewheeling atmosphere. Art freaks that we are, we planned to devote lots of time to the historic Rijksmuseum and, of course, to an otherworldly walk through the art of Vincent Van Gogh.
Strange it is, then, that what I remember most vividly about Amsterdam is the cats. Yes, the cats.
We’re cat freaks as much as we’re art freaks. And missing our own two cats, Billy and George, kept them in our thoughts and conversations.
But Amsterdam was the most cat-friendly city in our travels.
Cities in Italy, Rome and Florence especially, are great for cats, and stateside, San Francisco harbors a rich population of felines.
But Amsterdam stood out.
Not only did we see cats doing their thing when we walked in the neighborhoods, but we saw the accommodations people made for them.
Outside many second-story windows were small platforms that looked, as far as we could tell, like sentry posts for the resident cat.
Like I said, missing Billy and George might have made us borderline psychotic, but if not crazy for cats, what insanity is more worthy?
An American Chat Noir: Travel With Cats
You can see what a short stride it was from there to make up stories about cats who travel.
My first book, about cats who become accidental tourists, takes place in Paris. I picked Paris because the sites where I could bring the cats were the most popular. That is, I was compromising because I thought (rightly) that it would be better for sales.
The American chat noir story is done, great illustrations would make it so much better.
And although she’d never done illustrations before, Deborah agreed to give the book vivid life with more than a dozen full-page illustrations….
Of the guys viewing the rooftops of Paris on their first morning, cruising the Seine in a bateaux and, of course, what became the big star – discovering the cat posters in a kiosk one evening while strolling along the Left Bank.
We went on to create a sequel together, Travels with George: New York. But it all started with our happy, imaginary cats roaming around Amsterdam.
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