Whenever I’ve mentioned living in France in the grounds of a 12th century ruined chateau, I’ve often had people ask me if I’ve ever seen anything strange. Well, the answer is yes, and so I thought with Halloween looming, I’d share some of the stories and experiences my hubby and I have had since living here.
A bit of background information
The chateau itself is not a grand typical chateau like the Disney castle – it’s more of a manor house, which had one turret at some point and a spiral staircase in the middle, leading down to dungeons (although I think more cellars!) and tunnels underground – one leading to the village and one to a lake nearby. It was built in 1129, according to local, elderly villagers who used to play in the tunnels when they were young – they’ve seen a stone with the date carved in it. We have done some research, and it was a feudal castle – lots of the windows in the buildings have places for a bow and arrow to rest. It was built by the La Rochefoucauld family and according to records we’ve seen in the archives of The Chateau in La Rochefoucauld, built by the fourth Earl, whose name was Xavier. We only have one very old photo, which is the featured set image, taken probably in Victorian times looking at the fashion but could be later! I’ve added the photo for you to see. It was a wedding at the chateau- which was already pretty much a ruin. According to locals, it was also used by the French resistance during the second world war – and when we cleared one of the barns, we found bullet holes embedded in the wall – and even dug out a spent bullet, which doesn’t bear thinking about as to how and why they’re there.
Back to our story
In May 2012 we were looking for somewhere to live in SW France, and we came across the place we now live in quite by accident. We couldn’t find what we were looking for and our estate agent said that a friend of hers had just put her place on the market…it wasn’t what we were looking for, but we thought we’d take a look anyway! The moment we walked into the open barn, a strange feeling of calm came over both of us – it felt like we’d come home – something that’s very hard to describe. We fell in love with the place – not necessarily the cottage itself, but the whole atmosphere and feel of the place.
We moved over to France in October 2012, and it wasn’t long before we started noticing the odd, strange thing. The previous owner had told us she’d seen things she couldn’t explain, so we were kind of expecting to see something, but maybe not quite as much as we did over the following few years. It all started when we were clearing things out and moving stones etc in the barn.
The medieval soldier
I was wheelbarrowing some garden waste down to the field and on the way back up, I heard a metallic sound, and something caught the corner of my eye, coming from the back of the old chateau. It was fleeting, but what I saw was just the bottom of a person from just above the knees downwards – he was wearing chain mail, like a medieval solder, and he was leaning on a sword. He kicked it up with his foot and disappeared. I thought I was seeing things but had never seen a sword like it and described it to my husband – it had a deep groove down the middle, which apparently is where the blood runs out when it stabs someone – nice! As I said it was fleeting, but that was the first experience – don’t think my hubby believed me as he didn’t believe in such things!
The man behind me
The next experience he couldn’t ignore. It was in the evening, and I was talking on Skype to my daughter in the UK on my laptop. I was sitting on the sofa with the laptop facing behind me and my hubby was sat in front of me next to the fire. After we’d been speaking for a while, she suddenly said, ‘Hi Dave, how are you doing?.’ So, I said, ‘hold on a minute,’ and I turned the laptop round so she could say hi to Dave.’ She said ‘Hi – so who’s the man standing behind you? I thought that was Dave!’
That moment when you slowly turn around to see what she’s seeing …..and there’s no one there! To be fair, it spooked both of us and my hubby opened our front door and asked whoever it was to please leave and not come into our house. We have never seen anything like that in our house since, but I have felt the odd presence and there are the odd shadows, and the cat sometimes stares at one particular space. We’ve learned to ignore it and it’s not scary and could easily be explained as our imagination!
The haunted barn
The barn opposite our house is where we have experienced the most activity – if you can call it that – hubby is still sceptical, despite what he’s seen with his own eyes! We had done a lot of work in there clearing out an old cowshed to make room for storage and after clearing a lot of brambles and weeds, found an old stable. Dave was working in there and he heard a sound and looked up. He saw a man in a cloak – tweed in texture and he was floating but looked as if he were on horseback – backing into the stable. Dave could see the man but not the horse – it was just obvious he was on one! Suddenly, it bolted out of the stable very quickly and Dave followed but it had disappeared. He came into the house, clearly disturbed (!) and couldn’t believe what he’d seen but at the same time, couldn’t deny it. Another time he also saw an orb floating around in the same barn which disappeared into the wall.
I was working in there a few years ago, moving some concrete blocks and something white caught my eye above my head, quite high up – I thought it was a bird, but when I looked up, it was just a white shape, which flew around very quickly and flew straight into the upper wall and disappeared. I couldn’t explain it but it wasn’t threatening, so carried on working!
The tall man – or the brown man
My final story for now is that of the tall man. I think of him as our resident ghost, and I find him very comforting. He didn’t appear until we’d lived here for a couple of years…after I got a new work desk and put it in front of a small window facing our courtyard. The first time I saw him, I was sitting at my desk – it was around 5pm and I saw Dave walk past the window. I thought he was home from work a bit early, but got up and put the kettle on, like you do. Then I saw him walk past the French doors at the side of the house in the kitchen area, towards the back of the house. I went outside to see what he was doing – and he wasn’t there! His van wasn’t there either, so he wasn’t home from work yet! I put it down to my imagination and thought maybe it was just a bird. But I started to see the man regularly after that…not every night, but always at the same time – between 5pm and 6pm. Sometimes he just walked past the window – other times he walked round the house towards the back. He is tall and his outline looks exactly like my husband, stoops slightly. The only difference which I started to notice was his coat – it’s kind of a dark greeny brown and could be a cloak. I’ve never seen his face, only his profile and when I’ve gone outside to look for him, there’s no one there. And I’ve never seen him when I’ve been outside.
Dave has never seen him, so I started to think maybe I was seeing things – until one day my friend was here. It was summer and she was kneeling on my sofa facing the back of it, talking to me as I made a cuppa in the kitchen area. She suddenly said – ‘Dave’s home’ and got up to open the door to let him in. There was no one there and his van wasn’t there either. I had to tell her it was the just the ghost. She has seen it several times – he’s a regular visitor and we just speak to him now and say ‘Bonjour’.. He always appears at the same time of day and walks exactly the same route. Not scary, not threatening – just calm and just there.
My mate, Carole, isn’t the only one to have seen him either – it happened when a friend of ours, John, was visiting. Same scenario – he saw him, said, ‘Dave’s home’ and answered the door – only it scared him to death, and he left immediately and didn’t come back for months! And another of my friends has seen him too – again getting up to open the door and look around the house as she was certain it was Dave.
He’s not such a regular visitor these days, and we don’t see as many strange things – I think (if you believe in such things), that we are all comfortable with each other – we’re not going to do anything to bother them and they’re not a threat to us. I feel that they made themselves known more at the beginning to warn us not to change too much, as we always saw them when we were moving stuff around or removing walls. We decided that it would cost too much to renovate everything, so we’ve pretty much left it all alone.
The one thing I would say is that most people think that seeing things like this is threatening or frightening and that they’re there to harm us. We’ve never felt like that – this place has always felt calm, comforting and everyone who visits always go away feeling totally relaxed. I’m happy to live with them around us and I miss the tall man if I don’t see him for a while.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my stories – they are all true, whether you believe me or not! I know that these kinds of stories aren’t for everyone and not everyone would be comfortable living where we do – but I can honestly say it’s the most peaceful, calm place I’ve ever lived.
Happy Halloween!
All photos are ones I’ve taken here myself, apart from the first one which we inherited with the house. No AI involved!