Pathé in 1947, replaced the pig’s name Napoleon, with Caesar. The first French version of Animal Farm, published by O. Ms Muffat was then faced with tracing back to where the rumour could have originated, concluding that only two pigs were named after the emperor: one in George Orwell’s famous book and the other in a French restaurant. Ms Muffat said she combed through every law from both the First and the Second Empire as mentioned in various quirky French articles about France’s bizarre laws before concluding that it is non-existent.

“The law simply does not exist,” said Sophie Muffat, a naval historian with a specialty from the Directoire period (1795-1799) to the First Empire and a member of the Napoléon Foundation, adding she was “intellectually challenged” by the foundation.