Story from Geneviève

 

Mes petites madeleines

Today's walk will lead us to a charming village, but what I want to entertain you about is a topic very dear to me... we can't visit a village without crossing two big, round eyes staring at us... We call them, strays, abandoned, or gutters, they are the SDFs of the village .. cats cross our walks, sometimes they come waving at us asking for love, sometimes they disappear under some boards or around a street... We encounter a few plates full of kibble .. and we guess the kindness of some villagers... there are a few associations that try to limit the misery and sad condition of these stray cats... but there are often too many... and the fight is very tough...

These cats have their own story and even very beautiful... and some villages are proud to tell them....

In the year of grace 1338, in a village of Gascoge called the Romeo famous for its beautiful collage built twenty years ago, lived happily Vincent and Mariette. He was a lumberjack and his wife often accompanied him to the forest to make barons. They worked hard but with the poultry, pork, vegetables and fruit from the garden the table was full.

They had been married for three years when Mariette gave birth to a little girl who they named Angeline.

Sadly Vincent got run over by a tree he was taking down.

Mariette, inconsolable, let herself perish and two months later, she was found dead holding Angeline in her arms.

The little one was picked up by a neighbor and grew up with her children like their sister. Angeline showed a great attraction to cats. There were always two or three around her who, at night, slept in her bed. She often shared her school with them.

Angeline, over the years, became a strong young girl who helped her adoptive parents well in the field work, always accompanied by her cats. In 1342 and the following two years, the winter was harsh and the spring and summer so rainy that it was impossible to seed the fields.

A great discourse followed and despite the distribution by the Lord Arnaud d'Aux of the reserves of the collegiues, the inhabitants of the Romeo soon had nothing to worry about. They then thought about the so many cats in the village and made a gibelotte.

Angeline's parents, knowing how much she loved hers, agreed that she would keep a cat and a kitten on condition to hide them well because all the neighbors asked was to twist their necks. So during the day Angeline locked the two kitties in the attic and at night let them out to hunt. �

But famine was intensifying and many villagers died. Angeline and her parents made a miserable living by picking roots in the woods and sometimes mushrooms, but it was wretched.

Very skinny, they still managed to overcome this sad period and the gentler times finally allow a harvest to live on.

But in La Romieu, where the cats had disappeared, the rats had proliferated to the point of threatening the crops. Angeline, with infinite precautions had been able to hide her cats and had several litters.

There were about twenty clerks occupying the attic. Luckily the house was isolated

Villagers were lamenting over the damage the rats caused.

It's then that Angeline announced that she was going to release about twenty kittens that the locals could adopt.

Rats are disappearing quickly and this is how Angeline saved Romeo from a new misfortune.

Legend also has it that Angeline's face, over the years, looked more and more like a cat and her ears turned into cat ears.

It was while listening to a grandmother tell her grandchildren about the legend of Angeline's cats, that an Orléan sculptor came up with the idea of bringing it back to life by dropping cat sculptures around the square.

This story did not take place in Provence, but

to hang out with the cat, you only risk getting richer," wrote Colette in Les Vrilles de la Vine. Our ancestors applied this maxim to the foot of the letter in times when cats were not in the smell of holiness. The reason? It was claimed in the campaign that some cats were capable of bringing wealth to their owner.

These matous of a particular kind were named "matots" in Provence.

Here are my friends, I'm very happy to be surrounded by cats, my Julia could play mom sometimes... and today peaceful days flow in my sheds I built for them.. nothing but love and respect... that's what i was taught...

I wish you a very nice day with sun full of head and heart, and beautiful discoveries to brighten your walks ...

Be happy, take good care of yourself and those dear to you.

Kisses to all, thank you so much for your fidelity, for your kindness, for your beautiful friendship, for your warm messages and thank you also for all your many shares that make me so happy.

With all my sincere friendship, ..... I'll tell you tomorrow.