Picardy

Everyone has heard the story of the man from Picardy who, while on the ladder, was shown a prostitute and told (as our justice sometimes allows) that should he choose to marry her, he would be spared.

Apart from some who I know have done the same in France, I saw a young woman in Picardy,before I came up for those infamous Estates General of Blois,stab herself four or five times hard in the arm with a hairpin, breaking the skin and drawing blood on purpose, to show her commitment and the intensity of her vows.