Angeline's cats

The village of La Romieu is in the Gers. It is a pretty village and we stopped off there on our way home from out trip to the Gers a few weeks back, largely because we had heard of the legend associated with the village.

The legend of Angeline's cats dates back to the 14th century. A forester and his wife had a daughter Angeline. Sadly Angelines parents died when when was only 3 years old and she was adopted by neighbours.

Between 1342 and 1344 there was a great famine in the village of La Romieu. Crops failed and in desperation the villagers resorted to eating the cats of the village.

But the little girl Angeline adored her cats and her adopted parents agreed that she could hide two cats, one male one female, in the attic.

Eventually conditions improved and there were crops again but with no cats left the rats proliferated and a plague of rats began to threaten the crops.

In the meantime Angeline's cats had done what cats do and produced many kittens. Angeline agreed to give 20 cats to the village on condition that no cats would ever be harmed in the village again.

And so the rats disappeared and the village was saved. According to the legend Angeline's appearance gradually began to resemble her beloved cats as she grew older.

Much later in the 1960s a sculptor, Maurice Serreau, heard a woman recounting the legend to her grandchildren. He began to create sculptures of cats to adorn the buildings of the village and now they can be found in windows and niches, on pillars and posts all around the village.

There is also a small bust of Angeline with her cat like ears in the village square.

and the answer to yesterday's puzzle - there are six cats in this picture