dog identification help

The other day I met a woman walking her dog and had a brief conversation with her. The dog was very unusual and she told me the breed but I forgot it. I've searched wikipedia and every other dog site but can't find it. The name sounded French and had several words to it. I believe one of the words was Pugliesse. She says there are only about 100 of these dogs in the U.S and it was a pure bred. It is a rather large dog and the characterisitc that really caught my eye was that the hair on it's back looked frosted- brown with silver grey over it and it wasn't curly. The physique resembled that of a wolfhound- rather long legs. The head had a different type of hair but I don't remember any more about it. Anybody have any ideas? It was 9 mos. old and she was training it.