I grew up with a papillon, and have very fond memories of him; we got him when I was about 5 and he died when I was 17. They're quite a rare breed, so I'll confess I get quite excited when I see one out in the 'wild'!
To this day, he was the most temperamentally bombproof dog I've ever met - really sweet with everyone (unlike the other DDog who had opinions). I don't actually remember him putting a foot wrong in that regard, even after being attacked by other dogs a couple of times, with serious injuries on one occasion.
He only really barked at the doorbell (helpful, when you have deaf family members!). He did have a tendency to wee bloody everywhere in the house mark his territory, but I'm fairly certain that could have been trained out of him with some more effort, plus he wasn't neutered. They're very intelligent dogs and often used for agility etc., and so while ours was generally undertrained no recall for starters that was solely because no one actually put the effort in - it just wasn't considered necessary by that generation.
Definitely not hypoallergenic or non-shedding though - we were finding long white hairs for years after he died!
Mind you, this is only my memories of one dog - each has a personality of its own and is different.