(Bloomberg) - French presidents prefer dogs to cats. The labradors of Francois Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy were called Baltique, Maskou and Clara, respectively. That’s just one of the nuggets contained in “L’Elysee: Coulisses et Secrets d’un Palais” by Patrice Duhamel and Jacques Santamaria. The two authors (one a prominent journalist, the other a filmmaker) avoid rehashing the history of the palace which since 1871 -- when the Communards burned down the Tuileries -- has served as the residence of the French head of state.