The beginnings of the French Bulldog start with an ancient 
Greek tribe, The Molossians, who bred massive dogs for work 
and war known as the Molossus breed. From these dogs 
came other breeds such as the Bullenbeisser, now extinct. 
These dogs were the ancestors of bulldogs as we know them 
today. 
From the mid 1800s, English Bulldogs were taken to France
 by lace workers from Nottingham, forced out by the
 Industrial Revolution, who in the main settled in Normandy.

They then developed Bulldogs into a smaller, distinctively,
 French “type” suitable for indoor, companion living.