Châteaux Ghosts of France

Ghosts are everywhere, and perhaps even more likely to be found in these very ancient châteaux scattered throughout France. I have always thought of the many wonderful stories to be told if only those old stones could talk, to those who have the sensitivities to hear.

You either believe in ghosts or you don’t and this post is in no way an attempt to convince anybody of the validity of ghosts, but just to report some histories.  I chose a few of the more interesting ghost stories, that paranormal experts had validated as being beyond “explained”.

Frankly I find the French to be much more skeptical than Americans in these matters. After all, France is mostly secular and more cartesian, with fewer people voicing beliefs in God, much less in spirits.

Châteaux provide a perfect locale for those dislocated spirits to inhabit, being unable or unwilling to move on to greener pastures of the afterlife.  Just as there are difficult, wounded and or sick human beings that live amongst us,  there are souls of some of these troubled others who have died , but have never left the stratified energy field between earth and the beyond, wherever that exits.

Even if these souls did depart, many have left behind residual emotions, feelings and/or traumatic situations that still have remnants of energy that reverberate from the walls.  Not surprisingly, these left over remnants of intensified energy leak through and can well be felt by sensitive others.

Stones and any building material that constitutes the construction of houses, may indeed be inanimate objects, but they nevertheless are as porous as any other elemental matter, just much more  dense. A piece of stone may look incredible solid to your naked eye, but is indeed porous, with trillions of whirling electrons, neutrino and all the other sub atomic matter , discovered and as of yet undiscovered.

Those sub atomic spaces separating all those elemental particles of matter of a simple stone, is permeable to vibrational energy of its surroundings, especially of higher energy human beings who are cavorting in close proximity.  Think of them as sponges if you will, that have absorbed energies of those who lived amongst their walls.

Maybe that is why old houses, buildings, etc, give off energies that can be felt by certain human beings who have the particular sensitivity to feel those sort of things.  I, for one, am very sensitive to energies around me, be it people or my surroundings, which has proved very valuable in being a therapist.

Traumatized souls of those who have deceased may want linger to their physical earthly surroundings out of a need to be heard, or discovered, as if in wanting that their truth needs to be told, that was hidden from being known or revealed due to various circumstances, especially in light of a crime.

A perfect example of this is the ghost of Lucie who is said to reside in Chateau de Veauce in Auvergne, originally built around 800.   Lucie has been sighted multiple times since her death around 1560 or so and is one of the most documented cases of being haunted.

According to the legend, she was a young domestic to Baron Guy de Daillon, many years her senior who fell hopelessly in love with her.  When he left for a war, his very jealous wife Baroness Jacqueline de LaFayette threw this poor girl in a tower, where she died of hunger and cold.

After her death, she was buried within the walls of the tower.  In the 1980’s, the owner at the time named Ephram Tagori de la Tour capitalised on the ghost of Lucie, which attracted even more attention to this purportedly haunted château.

He said her apparition often appeared after midnight going down the many halls of the house. In 1984 a paranormal team inspected the château and along with the owner’s grand-daughter, who was aged 12 at the time, all saw  visions of Lucie.

The château was sold in 2002 to an Elizabeth Mincer, who felt that if Lucie was real, then the previous owner had played up the ghost story and artificially enhanced the  belief.

She also recounted hearing another legend of Lucie from some villagers, who believed that the young girl jumped to her death, out of fear of being married off to the older Baron.  However which legend may be true, she nevertheless mentioned a strange occurrence a few years after buying the  Chateau when it was a bed and breakfast.

One client after installing himself in his room, came running down to tell her that a young girl was in his bed.  Ms Mincer quickly accompanied him back to his room, where there was no girl, but she added she saw  a very visible dent in the down duvet, whose outline was much smaller than the man.

The renter was so totally freaked out by what he saw to the extent that he grabbed his bag and left without staying the night. Another paranormal team came in 2008 and the same again in 2014 and found correlating evidence that paranormal activity still exists in this château, though no distinct vision of Lucie appeared at either time.

The strangest occurrence happened in the room of John, where on both occasions, they recorded unexplainable sounds, at the same frequency and tonality.

Another haunted place is the Château de Combourg. It was built around 1016 in Brittany near the Broceliand forest, half way between Rennes and the sea-side town of Saint Malo.

The ghost of a man with a wooden leg and his black cat was first written about by Francois Rene Chateaubriand, the famous writer and statesman, who lived part of his childhood in the château.

It is believed that the ghost is the apparition of Malo III de Coëtquen, who lived from 1670 to 1721.  He reportedly had an amputation of his leg due to gangrene and walked with the help of a wooden stump.

He is felt to be a friendly ghost who often knocked on doors.  A mummified black cat was found buried within the walls of one of the towers during renovations work.

During Medieval times, black cats were considered companions of the devil and unfortunately many felt that by burying a black cat within walls of a house, it would offer protection from diabolical energies.

Chateau Lagorce, in the Entre Deux Mers wine region near Bordeaux dates back to 1500’s.  It has gone through several feudal wars and has had multiple owners. During World War II, the château was occupied by a Nazis general.

The current owner, a young British man does not have a B&B, but does rent the whole château out for weddings and events. He and his family have reported seeing apparitions, along with a few of his guests.

He personally saw a shadowy figure on the upper balcony of the entrance and his sister was awakened from a nap by an apparition of a little girl who told her “don’t worry, no one will hurt you here”.

The owner’s mother had an even stranger vision of looking out of one of the bedrooms and seeing a whole troop of soldiers marching in uniforms through the terrace.

One female guest awoke in the early morning hours  hearing a woman screaming in fear ” get out and fight”.  Another guest was awaked by an angry man yelling at her to “get out of my château”.

Another woman reported that she felt a strong presence of force pinning her to the bed.  Chateau Lagorce has been likewise visited by a paranormal team, who reported various unexplained occurrences.

Château Fougeret was built around 1337, and is found south of Poitiers.  It had been vacant for 30 years before being purchased in 2008 by a family named Geoffrey, who soon became aware of strange happenings as they proceeded to do piecemeal renovations.

The husband was out in the park clearing brush and cutting trees when he felt both shoulders being strongly tapped, but their was no one in sight.  His wife, when alone in the house started to hear deliberate and heaving footsteps several times coming closer to her.

Occasionally they witnessed faces in windows, in mirrors and in smoke from the living room chimney. All members of the family have heard chairs moving about, and noises from the dining room of people eating, and there have been strong odors of foods suddenly noticed.

Even the family dog has been seen often playing with an invisible dog or person. A little girl has been heard singing childhood rhymes.  This ghost is felt to be Alice, the name of a child who died there in 1924.

The other ghost whose face has even been photographed in a window is said to be Felix who died in 1898. Two different paranormal investigations have both found strong evidence of paranormal activity, with one recording strange unexplained voices, and sudden currents of glacial air.

The owner’s daughter, after cleaning out the room, where the child died of an unknown illness came down with an infection almost immediately afterwards. The family now has arranged  events that capitalise on these strange phenomena.

Château Puymartin is in southwestern France, famous truffle country near Perigord. It was built in 1450 and has  been in the possession of the same family now for over 500 years!

It is there where a famous ghost of a woman called “la Dame Blanche” has been seen by multiple villagers and owners throughout the years. .  The apparition of the white lady is said to be Thèrése de Saint Clar.

In the 1500’s she was found in the arms of her lover by the unexpected return of her husband, Jean de Saint Clar.   She was then condemned to live the rest of her life imprisoned in the northern tower, where she was forced to see her lover, who was killed and hung from a nearby tree.

Today you can visit her prison room and see the slot through which she was given meals.  She remained imprisoned till her death 16 years later.

Her husband refused a proper burial, so she was entombed  within the tower walls.  Her shadowy white figure has been spotted along halls and  rooms in the main château and  tower.  The present owner refers to her as the “soul” of the house in affectionate terms and relates that she has always been discreet and very “nice”.

Whether or not a ghost still presents herself, it is a wonderful bed and breakfast in a beautiful part of France to visit.  Several desserts are served there in her honour.

I have visited my share of châteaux, and I can certainly testify to sometimes feeling some uncomfortable or strange sensations, as well as peaceful ones depending on the energies given off by those old stones.

I personally have never seen a ghostly apparition, but then I do not seek out “haunted” houses.  I would certainly respect their presence and feel empathic for their plight of being ” stuck” still in  the  earth plane.

I would  love to hear from any of you who have experienced apparitions or paranormal events.  Remember, just because something is not directly visible with human eyes, does not exclude a physical presence.  It takes special and highly technical instruments to see viruses, cells, atoms, electrons, neutrinos, quarks, etc and  as well as distance far off planets and galaxies.

Let us not allow our arrogance of believing that we know everything there is to know about the physical nature of our environment and universe as did our fellow humans a few centuries back and that is unfortunately still flaunted by those whose minds are closed to the many secrets still  yet to be discovered.