French Angora Rabbits are a dual purpose meat and fiber rabbit with records dating back to 1723 France. They have many of the same production traits as commercial meat rabbits like New Zealands (they are excellent mothers of large litters, grow to 5 lbs by 10-12 weeks) as well as fiber production traits - (enough guard hair to reduce matting, less or no wool on the difficult to groom areas like face, ears, feet and belly) that make them a great Homesteaders rabbit. We also love that they have wonderful, friendly temperaments and I also appreciate that some of mine can be plucked instead of clipped. My kids have found them easier to handle than the New Zealands we used to have, even though both are large rabbits. 

Grooming. I adore the look of the English Angora, but as we get busier trying to build our farm it sure is nice to have rabbits that only need 15-30 min of grooming every 1-2 weeks, instead 1-2 hours every week. Also if a French ruins its coat, you can just pluck or shave them and grow a new show coat (with English Angoras you can only competitively show the first coat). Also I can almost avoid the belly-up lap grooming that is needed with English Angoras as French angora belly wool seems to stay pretty short and they don't grow wool on their legs. 

Fiber. French Angora fiber contains more guard hair and produces a yarn with a pronounced 'halo'- that fuzzy aura of wool characteristic of angora sweaters. This results in a still soft, but more dramatic yarn than English Angora wool (the English angora yarn is softer, smoother and more like cashmere - hardly negatives).