Fern Flower
Published on February 7, 2022

Street of the cat who fished

Улица кота, который ловил рыбу, France

Description

This is one of the oldest, as well as the narrowest and shortest street in Paris (its width is only about 1.5 m, length is about 15 m). The existence of this street perfectly shows the attitude of the French to history, as well as their ability to create a long-lived legend almost from scratch. There are many explanations for the appearance of the name of this street. We liked this one the most: 

"In the XV century, a black cat lived in these places, who knew how to catch fish with his paw, which served him as food. The owner of this cat, black as coal, was the old canon of Saint-Severin, Father Perle, who was suspected of practicing alchemy at night. Three students of the Cathedral noticed that they had never seen the cat and the canon together, and from this they concluded that both of these creatures, dressed in black, are actually one being. Without thinking twice, they waited for the fishing cat near the laundry, killed him, and threw the corpse into the Seine. No one saw Perle's father that day. The disappearance of the canon turned against the murderers: justice strangely accused them of murdering the priest-alchemist, and the royal prosecutor decided to hang all three on the gallows in Montfaucon. A few days later, to everyone's surprise, the father returned allegedly from an unforeseen trip and celebrated Mass in Saint-Severin. At the same time, the black cat, who came from nowhere, started his favorite activity on the shore near the laundry. Since then, the street has received its current name. And no one else dared to bother the old alchemist and his very strange companion, the black cat..."

During this expedition, 3 more versions of the legend about the history of the formation of the name of this street were recorded, which also have mystical overtones: in them a cat, or its owner, or both of them turned out to be ghostly creatures (creatures from another world).

loading...

Our comments

Links