Beatus vir qui suffert tentationem

During the horrendous heatwave of July 1558, Calvin liked to amble in the still-empty streets of the city, well before dawn.

One morning, as he descended the cauldron-makers’ street towards the Bourg-de-Four central square, he saw swirling water and flames coming out of the fountain at the bottom of the street. Suspecting an apparition of the Evil One, he approached, quite fearfully.

It was red-haired Hermine “La Rouquine”, one of the streetwalkers on the so-called “street of the beautiful girls“, the rue des Belles-Filles, splashing around half-naked and waving her impressive red hair in the fountain as a means to cool off. Seeing such a shameful sight, Calvin felt quite shocked and troubled and fell into a faint. Several hours later, he came to the convent hospital. His rantings about the Devil and women were so agitated and incoherent that the doctors diagnosed severe dehydration.

As soon as Calvin was back on his feet, he had the “beauty girls” banished from that street, much to the population’s anger. As a hommage to Hermine and to the oldest profession in history, we, the Papinot Brothers, have brewed a lovely red beer, containing water, barley, hops, and yeast, which will make your head spin.