Rue du Chat Qui Pêche, Paris

Rue du Chat Qui Pêche is a remarkably narrow lane linking quai Saint-Michel with rue de la Huchette. It measures no more than 1.80 metres across and is often presented as Paris’s narrowest street, although another passage contests that distinction. The lane opened in 1540 and once reached directly to the Seine.

Its name comes from a shop sign associated with Dom Perlet, a canon whose cat was famed for snatching fish from the river with a single paw stroke. As local legend has it, students who watched this feat suspected that the canon and his animal were devils in disguise, so they threw the cat into the Seine; both owner and cat later returned. A manuscript from 1636 already records the street under its present name. The story later inspired a novel by Jolán Földes, who lived here in the 1930s.