The Ghosts Lost in Time at the Petit Trianon

 

The French Aristocracy spent a considerable amount of time trying to get away from the people they ruled.  The first French palaces, where the kings would live, were in the center of Paris.   The need to escape the mob drove the ruling class to construct the palaces that are now The Louvre, which was on the outskirts of the city.  When the city pressed to tightly on these palaces,  the French kings moved to Versailles, which is quite far from the city.   Finally, even Versailles was too much for Marie Antoinette,  who decided to have her own Petit Trianon built.   In a time of financial strife, when the people were starving, the little Marie spent a small fortune creating a refuge for herself far from the people.  Maybe this is why the French Monarchy came to such a dark end,  the monarchy seemed to spend more tax money trying to escape the people than trying to help the people.  The people starved, suffered and died but the monarchy and aristocracy just kept building more and more expensive palaces further and further from anyplace they could see the suffering of the people.

The Petit Trianon is amazingly beautiful.  Marie Antoinette made it a little piece of heaven, but it is soaked in blood and forever a symbol of the aristocratic oppression of the French people.  It is not surprising that this disquieting place in known to be haunted and lost in time.  It is not only known for its numerous ghosts, but also for its strange time slips.   A plethora of ghosts have been seen wandering the serene grounds of this sanctuary.  Workers in eighteenth-century clothing are seen milling about.   Marie Antoinette  and her many visitors and friends have been seen in the building and gardens.   Strange noises have been reported throughout the Petit Trianon.  Phantoms call this small palace home.

One of the most interesting stories from the Petit Trianon involve a group of people that went into the building at the turn of last century for a tour.  The building, which had once been crowded with people, suddenly became very empty.   The silence was uncanny and the group wandered for what seemed like forever trying to figure out what had happened.  Finally, a lovely lady appeared seated on a terrace.  As they approached the lady, a footman came and drove them out off the terrace into a crowd of people.   As they left, they realized that not only had no time passed since their arrival and their departure, but the woman they had seen on the terrace matched the picture of Marie Antoinette perfectly.

The Poltergeist of Calvados Castle

Calvados Castle is located in Normandy in the north of France.  The castle is relatively new as far as castles go.  Especially as far as French castles go.  In France, if a castle is less than three hundred years old it seems new compared to the medieval ruins that pepper the landscape.   Calvados Castle was build in 1835.  It was built on top of some ruins that have never been described.  Perhaps this was the source of the problem because between 1875- 1876 the castle endured one of the longest sustained poltergeist occurrences ever recorded.

The family involved in this poltergeist activity requested to be left out of the stories and so I have been able to find their names and they are often referred to X.  They inherited the castle in 1865.  The haunting started without subtlety.  On the first night, objects flew around the rooms,  there were bangings on the doors and a monstrous boom filled the quite halls of the castle.  The banging on the walls continued nightly for three months.   One of the worst events occurred during a terrible rainstorm.   The entire family was awoken by a screaming woman.  The servants helped Monsieur X find the woman who seemed to be in peril, but no one was found.  The screams seemed to be coming from a room that is known as the green room and is said to be the most haunted room in the castle.  Every night the screams became worse and worse.  In fact, the poltergeist activity in general seemed to get worse as time progressed.  It heaped books in the study.  Madam X reported hearing noises like a bull bellowing while her husband was away.   It was particularly active in the children's room where beds were turned over  and toys were thrown across the room. At the peak of the haunting, as it was recorded, the ghost played the locked organ, knocked over furniture and sent water down the chimney, scattering the lit coals in the face of the children's tutor.

Finally,  in January the family couldn't take it any longer.   They called upon the parish priest to perform an exorcism.  It was a long night and those that witnessed the exorcism described a male voice taunting the castle's occupants during the exorcism.  The exorcism peaked around 11:45 pm.  Those who were there  describe screaming and banging and when the last rites of the ritual were performed they say that a demon cried out in what sounded like agony.   The haunting was over and there have been no reports of incidents since that time.