Top 10 Creepy Legends of South Eastern France
In the South-East and in particular in Provence, there is a profusion of more or less worrying legends which very often involve legendary animals. Ghouls, dragons, giant beasts devouring children. It is better to stay locked up at night in the scrubland if you do not want to cross the black washerwomen.
1. The legend of Coulobre
This legend was born in the village of Fontaine-de-Vaucluse. It is said that a dreadful creature of the demon-dragon type lives in the Sorgue, the neighboring river. She would remain hidden during the day to go out to feed at night and terrorize the populations. This creature, the Coulobre, would have sought to find a husband to help her raise her child. It is a hermit, a named Véran, who would have put an end to the days of Coulobre thanks to a learned sign of the cross. Even today, the unexplained disappearances of young men in the region are sometimes attributed to Coulobre.
2. The Tarasque
On the banks of the Rhône, not far from Tarascon, a beast, the Tarasque, is said to be able to capsize ships between Arles and Avignon. Half lion, half fish, this kind of chimera has a turtle shell and scales, as well as a tail similar to that of a scorpion. It seems that a young girl of good will managed to shoot her with great reinforcements of holy water.
3. The Lou Garagaï
This king of the chasms would have taken up his quarters in the cave of Sainte-Victoire, near Aix. You could hear her howls in windy weather. You can imagine where the screams are coming from.
4. The Drape
This huge white horse would drag around the town of Aigues-Mortes at dusk. He would take with him little vagabond children called never to return. This Drape would actually have been invented to appeal to the vigilance of mothers, so that they do not let the children go out at night.
5. The Drac
This typical demon from the south is undoubtedly the most famous legendary animal in the area. Able to change his appearance to deceive his victims, he would naturally be akin to a kind of dripping and dreadful dragon. Disguised as a lamb or a rabbit, he would approach the washerwomen to remove them to force them to breastfeed his countless children who are not weaned until the age of 7.
6. The Beast of Pignans
The town of Pignans, in the Var, has hosted its own magical creature: a sort of huge puma which, in the middle of the 1960s, devastated herds of sheep. Until 1987, the beast was accused of deaths on farms. In reality, specialists agree that it was surely a large dog from Africa close to the hyena, the lycaon, stranded in the Var following the imprudence of an owner.
7. The washerwomen at night
Near the wash houses and the dead water, it is not good at night, to cross the road of the washerwomen at night. These ethereal ghosts which manifest their presence with the help of songs and beatings distributed on the linen announce the imminent death of those who meet them. They are assimilated to witches who, buried in a dirty shroud because of their ungodly life, return at night to wash it.
8. The Babau
On June 2, 1290, the village of Rivesaltes was awakened in the middle of the night by a din from all the devils: an immense beast, a cross between an iguana and a dragon, entered through the hole in the walls dug to evacuate the waste and was seized several children whom she took to eat them. Asked about the appearance of the beast by the mayor of the city, a walker is so shocked that he stutters: ba ba… The name is all found. The Babau will be defeated a few days later, but its legend remains. A song is also dedicated to him: “The Babau is in the city, the Babau is not nice, the Babau is very nasty because he eats the children. "
9. The Roumèque des Cévennes
This dark creature prey on evil children. To make her come, you have to sing a phrase: "Patapim patapam" and here is the Roumèque which arrives in different forms (dragon, bat, toothless old woman). The Roumèque is convenient: she lives near torrents, cliffs, wells, in short all the places where children are not allowed to go.
10. The dragon of Draguignan
The name of the city has nothing to do with any dragon but comes from a local owner called Draconium. That said, the locals couldn't help but invent their dragon legend themselves for good measure. It is therefore said that a dragon had lived for a long time in the gorges of the Nartuby and, on the occasion of a flood, he escaped for lack of knowing how to swim. It was then that he would have started to devour pilgrims before being defeated by the local abbot. In short, it is better not to go through Draguignan when you go on a pilgrimage to the piles of Lérins.
