Maupassant in Fécamp (76), Seine-Maritime (76)

La fontaine du Précieux-Sang. Legend has it that a little of Christ's blood, concealed in the trunk of a fig tree, fell from the cart carrying it in Fécamp. A (healing) well sprang from this, and Fécamp, along with the Mont-Saint-Michel, became the greatest places of pilgrimage in Normandy. In the second half of the nineteenth century through to the first half of the twentieth century the pilgrimages were so successful that a train service was set up specifically to cater for religious tourists. Maupassant mentions the tale in his short story 'Histoire d'une fille de ferme' (1881).