Welcome to Saint-Malo, everyone !
Today, I would like to tell you about an interesting anecdote that occured during the dense history of my town...
In 1693, France and England are at war (oh ! what a surprise!). Saint-Malo is a rich and powerful city, departure point of famous explorers to conquer the world like Jacques Cartier (who conquered Canada in 1534), Duguay Trouin, Commander Charcot, and later Bougainville, etc.
During the 26-29 November 1693, the Anglo-Dutch alliance bombard the town and launch a spectacular attack with what they called « The Infernal Machine », a ship loaded with explosives in the intent to break the city walls.
Unfortunately, the wind pushed the boat aside, and it got stuck on a rock, that were later called « the englishmen rock/ le rocher aux anglais ». Then, the english engineer in charge decided to light the fuse of the ship, causing the death of 6 englishmen (and 0 french) aside with some damages to several streets in the city.
Historic fail
The only victim of this attack was a little cat found dead in that street, later called « the Dancing Cat Street/ la Rue du Chat qui Danse ».
A Benedictine monastery monk marked down this event with the following words :
« The Englishmen who,like the proverbial mountain
Only brought forth one poor rat,
In their Saint-Malo campaign
Only managed to kill one poor cat. »
« L'Anglais qui, comme la montagne
N'enfanta qu'un pauvre rat
Dans sa malouine campagne
Ne fit mourir qu'un pauvre chat »
So, curiosity killed the cat ? I don't think so : englishmen did !
Thanks for reading.
If you have interesting facts about your town, I'd love to read them in the comments.