Maigret et le Corps sans Tête (suite)

The corpse for which this story was named was turned up by the propeller of an overloaded barge and had been dismembered before it was dumped in the canal. The head remains missing at the time of posting.

But along the way someone, presumably the doctor quaintly called the légiste in France, observed that the dismembering was not worthy of a butcher, let along a surgeon. Not even the work of La Villette, this last being the name of a north eastern district of Paris, more or less the locale of this story. Literally 'very small town', from which I associate to all those districts & suburbs of London & Dublin with 'town' as part of their names.

My guess that La Villette might once have been the name of a slaughterhouse turned out, for once, to have been correct, as can be seen at reference 2.

Not quite the equivalent of our nearly late-lamented Smithfield as I don't think that there has been any slaughtering there for a long time. Or even live animals.

PS: I note in passing Simenon's penchant for stories set on working canals, recreational rivers and small fishing ports. There can't be many stories without their péniches.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/maigret-et-le-corps-sans-tete.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_halle_de_la_Villette.