Mark Billinghurst & Mike Foster  

 Barrow Upon Humber, N.Lincs  Tel/Fax 01469 530760

e-mail us at: nouveau@papillons60.freeserve.co.uk

 

 

We have now completed our fourth Book, The Illustrated Standard for the Papillon and Phalene. We are delighted to say that this has been received with great praise from around the World. To see details of this publication ad the various comments from readers just follow the link on the Menu above. There are still a few copies of the Book available

 

 Our first papillons were obtained in 1971 but it was not until 1974 that we decided to venture into the world of breeding and showing dogs, having previously bred and exhibited Long Hair Cats (in those days called Persians) and Chinchilla cats. We obtained our first  show papillon in 1974 along with our first bitch and in 1977 our first champion, Nouveau Le Grand, was born. During the years that followed we  have only bred as and when necessary preferring to strive for quality rather than quantity.

We are both passed to award C.C.'s and have done so on a number of occasions both in the UK and Overseas. Mike has twice served terms of office as Chairman of the Papillon (Butterfly Dog) Club as well as a term as Treasurer and has for some 12 years or more been Breed Correspondent for Dog World.  We were co Editors of the outstandingly successful Millennium Book of the Papillon, which we followed up with the Millennium Books of the King Charles Spaniel and the Pekingese. Our latest project, The Compelte Illustrated Standard For the Papillon and Phalene is currently in preparation, do have a look at this. Go to 'Millennium Books' at the Menu above.  As well as our interest in Papillons Mark has had a great interest in parrots and has over the years specialised in breeding a number of varieties of parrots in particular Lories and Lorikeets and Amazons.  

Towards the end of 2004 we made the decision to discontinue our breeding and exhibiting activities, truth be told over the preceding few years we had become quite disenchanted with the world of showing dogs in the UK. Whilst we will therefore no longer be breeding hopefully our line will continue to grace the ring elsewhere and we will through this still be able to have some input into producing future stock. We are delighted to say that four of our dogs were able to join two of their kennel mates with our good friend Marichin Rosenstein (Marichin Papillons) in Texas so the Nouveau lines will not be lost. We are lucky to have found someone like Marichin in whom we can have such trust and who will, we know treat our lines with the same care and respect we have always done.

After much thought we have decided to continue to maintain our web site as a tribute to those Nouveau dogs of the past, and hopefully some of the future for which we can take some credit. Whilst we look forward to new ventures we shall continue to keep an eye on what is happening in this breed that we love with the sincerest hope that some of the problems of recent years will be solved. We hope that the breed will see a return to the type and quality that graced the ring in the 1980's and 1990's. Whether this will be so depends upon the integrity not only of breeders and exhibitors but, equally as important, of those charged with judging the breed.  Hopefully we will get back to the times when exhibits are judged more on their merit and less on who owns them.