A cat perched on the rooftops of Paris, an orange cat that smiles all the time, a cat that's much more than just graffiti.

It's the effigy of street artist M.CHAT we're talking about here.

Real name Thoma Vuille, the Franco-Swiss artist has been wallpapering walls with his gaping-smile feline since 1997. Born in 1972 in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel, he began painting at the age of 15 and studied at the Institut des Arts Visuels d'Orléans from 1995 to 2001, but soon preferred to create in the alleys of the city.

It was during a workshop the future graffiti artist attended at a school in Orléans that something clicked, when a little girl started drawing this pet. Thoma Vuille took this illustration and turned it into M.CHAT.

Making this enigmatic creature his trademark, or rather his artistic trademark, he has become inseparable from it. Who is M.CHAT? The work or the artist? Or is it the work and the artist?

One of the peculiarities of this urban fawn is that it is represented in places that seem inaccessible at the time, thus explaining the usefulness of a cat's ability to fly.

With his cartoonish looks, he reminds us of the mischievous character in Lewis Carroll's novel The Cheshire Cat, alongside Alice in Wonderland, with that same never-failing smile. An infectious smile, as Thoma Vuile's art has become.