‘Together because it feels good’: French man who goes everywhere with a pigeon

Brittany resident Xavier Bouget, 80, has a constant companion in his rescue pigeon, Blanchon

When 80-year-old Xavier Bouget goes for a ride on his bicycle, a majestic white pigeon rides on his hat. When he tinkers in his workshop, she pecks at the drill bits and nails. And when he waters his garden, she observes from his shoulder.

Bouget, a retiree from the north-west French region of Brittany, befriended the bird, who he named Blanchon, when it was a chick and now it tags along with him everywhere, sitting on his shoulder or walking along beside him.