Appearance
French Bulldogs are a compact, muscular dog with a smooth coat, snub nose and solid bone structure. Their physical appearance is characterized by naturally occurring 'bat ears' that are wide at the base and rounded on the top. Their tails are naturally short, not cropped, straight or screwed but not curly.
Size
Under the American Kennel Club and Canadian Kennel Club standards, weight is not to exceed 28 pounds (13 kilograms). In general, bitches range in weight between 16 and 24 pounds, with dogs between 20 and 28 pounds. The Fédération Cynologique International (FCI, World Canine Federation) does not set a hard and fast weight limit, simply stating: "The weight must not be below 8 kilograms nor over 14 kilograms for a Bulldog in good condition, size being in proportion with the weight".
Coat color
French Bulldogs come in a variety of colors and coat patterns. Acceptable colors, according to the AKC, include all brindle, fawn, white, brindle and white, and any color except solid black, mouse, liver, black and tan, black and white, and white with black, which are disqualifications. The black is a solid black without a trace of brindle. The FCI standard disallowed fawn until the mid nineties. Color disqualifications under the current FCI standard are black and tan, mouse gray, brown.
All of this variety has a drawback: confusion over just what name applies to each color or color pattern.
In its most simple forms, a French Bulldog coat color can be simply described as fawn, with a variety of possible marking patterns and dilutions possible. Fawn can range in shade from deep red to 'cafe au lait' to a pale, golden cream. The differences in appearance are all due to variants in marking patterns, which range from brindle--black stripes in varying degrees of repetition and thickness overlying the fawn base coat--to pied, varying patches of brindle overlaying fawn interspersed with white markings, to black masked fawn--fawn in differing shades with a classic masking pattern on the face and dorsal area of the body. There are a myriad of variants of marking type, pattern, size and placement possible within these parameters.