Pétosse is known in the Vendée for its underground tunnels and the legend of 'Cats shod with iron'.
This story is still current among the villagers of Pétosse: a few years ago, there still existed at Pétosse the 'Chat Ferré' Inn. Don't imagine that the story is anything to do with domestic cats, but "Chats-Garous" (literally Were-Cats) or sorcerers who dressed in cat skins and shod their sabots to simulate the sound of 'horse-men', who assembled each winter at the witch's sabbath which took place at the crossroads of Coudray en Marsais Ste Radegonde.

Traces of this legend are found elsewhere in Pétosse, where a sculpted cat can be seen in the nave of the 12th Century Norman church.