Paris Sausage Walk
November 16th marked a big day for Paris' dachshund owners and lovers alike. The Paris Sausage Walk returned this year for its 6th edition. At around 11 a.m., the David Ben Gourion esplanade was hit with a flood of at least 2,554 elongated pups and their owners, all making their way along the Seine to raise money and smiles across the city.
The History Behind the Walk
Despite the serotonin rush, the Paris Sausage Walk is not only meant to spread joy and showcase the cuteness of these dogs. The event is a fundraiser for l'Association des Teckels Sans Doux Foyer, roughly translating to the "association for dachshunds without loving homes." The association was initially created to help dachshunds in particular, but is always open to taking in any other dog breed in need. Along with helping these dogs find loving homes, the group emphasizes proper training for new owners who struggle with caring for their new pup.
The association, just like the Paris Sausage Walk itself, thrives off of volunteer work, sponsorships, donations and aims to leave no dog uncared for. In return for a 20 euro donation to the group during the walk, a donor could receive a "kit solidaire de la marche," containing a branded tote bag with a poster, an iron-on patch and a ribbon that could be tied to the leash of the participating dog, or worn as a bracelet on their human.
Bringing Smiles to the City
Dachshunds, however, were not the only ones making their way down the banks of the Seine. Many people, who did not own dachshunds, attended the walk solely to watch the dogs as a source of entertainment and, of course, joy.
AUP senior and art history student Beatrice Bevilacqua attended the sausage walk with her roommate. "The sausage walk is like our equivalent of the Super Bowl and now we’ve gone every year out of tradition to take pictures and see all the costumes," she states. But this year, they came prepared. "We had a massive inflatable costume, lots of people immediately started asking for photos and we got to hold some of the dogs and pose for pictures. It’s always really fun to see the massive turnout and sausage dogs in general get very excited when they recognize their own kind so it’s always so cute to see how excited they get too." Many people joined together on this day with the common thread being their love and appreciation for dogs. The sheer amount of joy that these dogs brought to people was almost palpable in the air along the Seine that day.
Aside from their human counterparts, many other dog breeds and even two awfully judgmental cats joined in on the fun.
Revisiting This Year's Walk
The Paris Sausage Walk's official Instagram account recently came forward with the recorded data pertaining to the home countries of the participating dachshunds from this year's walk: 56 percent coming from Paris or the Ile-de-France region, 34 percent from the French provinces and 10 percent that had traveled from other European countries. A good amount of dachshunds traveled to the city just for the event!
We also now know the different kinds of dachshunds and how many of each that participated in this year's walk: the majority being short-haired (43 percent), followed by long-haired (31 percent), and lastly wire-haired (26 percent).
Long hair, short hair and wire hair alike, these dogs brought so many smiles to Parisians and visitors alike. Locals, visitors and, of course, the participating pups, made this all possible. Most importantly, our community came together to help out our four-legged friends in need.
