Your True Tales
April 2008 - Page 21

Two Ghosts in France
by Lisa Falour

I'm an American living in France. I had an operation awhile ago and was sent to a nursing home to recuperate. This is very typical here. My French is awkward, but I get by. I befriended a nice 62-year old woman who's been healthy and worked in computers all her life, but recently had some bad health (she's way better now). I like to chat about ghosts, and after a bit, she remembered seeing two at the nursing home we were at! It's rumored to be haunted, but now I know it is because I believe her story.

In January, 2008, around 9 or 10 a.m., she was looking out the window of her room and saw a woman in white old-fashioned clothing and a hat leading a little boy dressed in white. They were strolling through the garden. They were solid and looked normal, but Renée wondered why they were in costume. (January is fairly mild in Paris, but cold, and they were not dressed warmly.) She looked away for a few seconds, then looked back, and they were gone. This unnerved her. She looked around (for a clock or the phone or something), then looked back, and there they were again. They strolled out of sight behind some greenery. The whole sighting lasted about a minute.

The nursing home is in a château in Montmorency, France, near Paris. In the 18th century, Jean-Jacques Rousseau lived there and wrote La Nouvelle Heloîse there. She knew she had seen two ghosts, and did tell the staff right away, who assured her it was a hallucination. She is sure it wasn't, though. She said she wasn't frightened. The figures were about 300 feet away. She did find it odd they were invisible briefly. She is a very sane and sober lady and I believe her. She's kind of pleased with the memory, and is glad I jogged her recall. She had been worrying about money, so had forgotten the incident for a bit. The château is called L'Ermitage and can be visited. Just go in during business hours and act like you belong there and are visiting someone (afternoons are best), then leave so on thereafter and no one will hassle you. Montmorency is a pretty, interesting town, too, and worth the visit. You can get there from Paris by public transportation.

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