The Rue du Chat-qui-Pêche (, ) is considered the narrowest street in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. It is only wide for the whole of its length. It is in the 5th arrondissement, on the

Rive Gauche The Rive Gauche (; Left Bank) is the southern bank of the river Seine in Paris. Here the river flows roughly westward, cutting the city in two parts. When facing downstream, the southern bank is to the left, whereas the northern bank (or Rive Dr ...

of the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

, and runs from the Quai Saint-Michel to the

Rue de la Huchette The Rue de la Huchette () is one of the oldest streets running along the Rive Gauche in Paris, France. Running eastward just below the Seine river from the Place Saint-Michel, it is today an animated Latin Quarter artery with one of the highest ...

History

Built in 1540, it then ended on the bank of the river

. While the Rue du Chat-qui-Pêche is the narrowest street in Paris by overall width, it is not the narrowest by minimum width. Accordingly, the status of "narrowest" street in Paris is also conferred on the Sentier des Merisiers in the 12th arrondissement, with a minimum width of , and the Passage de la Duée in the 20th arrondissement, which had a minimum width of before one side was redeveloped in 1970.

Origin of the name

The original name was the ''Rue des Étuves'' () or ''Ruelle des Étuves'', and at various times it has also been known as the ''Rue du Renard'' (not to be confused with the current Rue du Renard, in the 4th arrondissement) and the ''Rue des Bouticles'' (). Its current name is attested by 1636 as the ''Rue du Chat qui pesche'' (using the then-current spelling of the French verb pêcher). This name comes from the

sign A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm, or me ...

of a

fishmonger A fishmonger (historically fishwife for female practitioners) is someone who sells raw fish and seafood. Fishmongers can be wholesalers or retailers and are trained at selecting and purchasing, handling, gutting, boning, filleting, displaying, ...

y, whose owner, a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

, Dom Perlet, owned a black cat known for its ability to catch fish from the Seine with a single swipe of its paw. Both ''Chat-qui-Pêche'' and ''Chat-qui-pêche'' are considered proper capitalizations of the street's name.

Literature

Jolán Földes, a Hungarian author, lived on this street in 1930, and gave its name to one of her novels: ''A halászó macska uccája'', which is the literal translation of the name in Hungarian. The street's name appears twice in the works of

Juan Gelman Juan Gelman (3 May 1930 – 14 January 2014) was an Argentine poet. He published more than twenty books of poetry between 1956 and his death in early 2014. He was a naturalized citizen of Mexico, where he arrived as a political exile of the Proc ...

and in

Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian Medieval studies, medievalist, philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular ...

's '' The Prague Cemetery''.

Access

It is located near the Métro station Saint-Michel, and may be accessed by any of its cross streets, including the Rue de la Huchette.

References

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Chat Chat or chats may refer to: Communication * Conversation, particularly casual * Online chat, text message communication over the Internet in real-time * Synchronous conferencing, a formal term for online chat * SMS chat, a form of text messagi ...

History

Origin of the name

Literature

Access

See also

References