A Ragdoll cattery in Corrèze, France

🏠A house on three levels

That is the real reason, and it is very concrete. The house we were able to buy here has three usable levels, which lets us distribute the space instead of making everything cohabit:

• A living and visiting level — the one where we welcome you, and where the socialised cats move about normally.
• A level for the queens — a queen giving birth needs quiet, with no through-traffic, during the first weeks. A disturbed nest is a nest the mother moves.
• A level for the males — being able to physically separate males and females is indispensable for controlling matings and avoiding any unplanned litter.

That organisation is no luxury: it is what makes it possible to decide when a queen is bred, and to give her rest cycles. In a single open space, it is materially impossible.

And in Corrèze, that volume is financially within reach. In many other regions, the same project would demand an unattainable budget, or compromises on separating the groups. The place is not a backdrop: it directly conditions how one can breed.

🌲A life choice, too

Let us be honest: we are here because we love being here. Haute-Corrèze is green, very sparsely populated — about twelve inhabitants per square kilometre — and deeply calm. The air is better, so are the landscapes, and the rhythm has nothing in common with an urban outskirt.

It is a pleasant setting for cats. It is not, for all that, a sales argument, and we will not present it as one.

⚖What the place does not prove

You sometimes read that a climate, an altitude or a big plot would make the quality of a cattery. That is false. What matters for cats is the indoor arrangement: a stable temperature around 20 °C, good ventilation, vertical space, light, and a proper separation of the groups.

A cattery set up in the far south, in a well-designed, well-cooled building, will offer better conditions than a badly arranged mountain one. Geography says nothing; the markers that truly say something are here.

🚗By car

Peyrelevade sits at the junction of three departments — Corrèze, Creuse and Haute-Vienne — and an hour and a half from Auvergne. Journey times, as a guide:

• Ussel — about 35 km, 45 minutes
• Limoges — about 80 km, 1 h 20
• Guéret — about 75 km, 1 h 30
• Tulle — about 70 km, 1 h 15
• Brive-la-Gaillarde — about 95 km, 1 h 30
• Clermont-Ferrand — about 125 km, 1 h 50
• Bordeaux — about 280 km, 3 h 15

The A89 motorway (Bordeaux – Clermont-Ferrand) and the A20 (Paris – Toulouse) serve Haute-Corrèze; you then reach the plateau on the local roads.

🚆By train

There is no station in Peyrelevade. The most practical ones are Meymac and Ussel, on the Limoges — Ussel line. We will gladly pick you up at the station, by appointment: just tell us your arrival time.

📱Following from a distance

Coming in person is desirable, but not indispensable. Seeing the kittens for real remains the best there is: you perceive the temperament, the weight in the hand, the way they come to you. Nothing replaces that.

But let us be realistic: a large share of adoptions are concluded without a prior visit, including between breeders. Our own breeding cats were chosen from a distance, for want of being able to make the trip. It is common practice, and there is nothing abnormal about it — provided the breeder plays the game of transparency.

Concretely, that means:

• Videos in 720p at minimum, most often in 1080p — not blurry clips of a few seconds.
• Photos from several angles: face-on at eye level, profile, top, belly. That is what lets you judge the mask and the markings.
• Regular weigh-ins and the report of the veterinary visits.
• Video calls to see the premises, the parents and the kittens live, and ask your questions.

Our view
Some French catteries import their breeding cats from abroad on the strength of a few mediocre photos, and have them delivered by a courier they cannot even talk to. We find that too little. Adopting from a distance is perfectly legitimate; it simply demands that the breeder make up for the distance through the quality of what they show.

📦Delivery

It is considered case by case and on quotation, depending on the distance and the destination. We hold the TAV, the French certificate of competence for transporting live animals required by European regulation (EC) no. 1/2005.

To be precise: beyond 65 km, a commercial transport also requires a carrier authorisation issued by the DDETSPP, the local French authority, on top of the TAV. That procedure is under way and will be completed before the first litter arrives, along with the SIRET registration and the activity’s other formalities. We prefer to write it rather than announce a service we cannot yet fully provide.

Beyond a certain distance, we will in any case favour a professional pet courier rather than stringing hours of road: it is safer for the kitten and for the driver alike. And handover at our home remains the simplest solution, and the least costly for you.

Let us talk it over before you commit: write to us with your region, and we will see together what is most reasonable.

🗺Our natural catchment

The Millevaches plateau straddles three departments, and Haute-Corrèze touches Auvergne:

• Corrèze (19) — Ussel, Meymac, Bugeat, Égletons, Treignac, Tulle, Brive
• Creuse (23) — Felletin, Aubusson, Guéret, Bourganeuf
• Haute-Vienne (87) — Eymoutiers, Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, Limoges
• Puy-de-Dôme (63) and Cantal (15) — Clermont-Ferrand, Aurillac

More broadly, we answer families across Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the rest of France — and enquiries from abroad are welcome too.

🏆What cat shows are for

Cat shows have a real use, and it would be dishonest to claim otherwise. They allow cats to earn titles and qualifications, and above all to be examined by judges who see hundreds of them: an outside, comparative eye you do not have at home. For a beginning breeder, they are a school.

💬And why we do not go

It is a personal choice, plainly stated: I do not like that setting. The halls, the noise, the neon lights, hotel weekends at the other end of the country — it is not an environment I want to spend my time in, nor take my cats to.

So I work independently, from the LOOF’s official standard, the pedigrees and the health tests. I fully own not chasing titles: they hold no value in my eyes, and I have no wish to drive across France to collect them.

What this implies for you
It is a limit, and you have every right to weigh it. Our cats will have no title to show, and no judge will have ruled on their type. If that point matters to you — especially if you are looking for a kitten destined for breeding or showing — turn to a cattery that shows: it is a legitimate need and we will tell you so frankly. We prefer to announce it here rather than let you discover it later.