HGB Ep. 651 - Mont-Saint-Michel or "The Nest"

This Month in History - Birth of Cecil DeMille

In the month of August, on the 12th, in 1881, iconic American filmmaker, Cecil B. DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts. Cecil Blount DeMille's parents were playwright father, Henry Churchill DeMille, and educator and play-broker mother, Matilda Beatrice Samuel. Older brother William C. DeMille would also become a director and playwright. Cecil attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York starting in 1898. He worked as a stage actor and playwright in the 1900s. By 1912, Cecil co-founded the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company alongside Jesse Lasky and Samuel Goldwyn. Known as the "Master of Spectacle," he directed and produced roughly 70 films, spanning both the silent and sound eras. Cecil shaped the cinematic landscape with grand biblical epics and lavish historical dramas. By 1914, Cecil's co-founded company evolved into Paramount Pictures with which he won the Academy Award for Best Picture with his production, 'The Greatest Show on Earth' in 1953. He was known on-set as a strict, jodhpurs-wearing "director-general" who demanded absolute authority. Cecil B. DeMille died of heart failure in January 1959, at the age of 77. He is still honored yearly as a founding father of American cinema, and the quintessential Hollywood showman, by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association via the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award. 

Mont-Saint-Michel (moh-sahn-mee-shell) or "The Nest"

We once again were inspired to research a location that we saw on a series. This one is Mont-Saint-Michel from "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon." The location in the series is like a safe haven for the good people, at least that is the way it appears on the surface. The castle-like main building is so beautiful and large that it seemed like it had to be a creation of CGI, so we were shocked to look it up and find that it was a real place. And when we dug a little further to see if it was haunted, sure enough, it was! Join us for the history and hauntings of France's Mont-Saint-Michel.

Mont-Saint-Michel is actually its own island and is a village. An interesting aspect of the island is that it is ruled by the tides as to whether people can reach it from the mainland. The island was originally named Mont-Tombe (mohn tohnb-bay), which means Mount Grave, and is located off the northwestern coast of France off of Normandy. This island sits at the mouth of the Couesnon (KWAY-non) River and at high tide, the island is surrounded by water. The island is circular in shape and measures 3,000 feet around and is made from granite with this immense granite outcrop that stands 256 feet high. The name of the island was changed to Mont-Saint-Michel in the 8th century. It was at this time that the Bishop of Avranches (ah-vrahn-sh), St. Aubert (oh-BAIR), had 3 separate visions in 708 that he claimed were of the archangel Michael and he was told to build a small chapel there. It took three visions because the bishop thought the first two were just dreams. When the archangel showed up the third time, he pressed his finger into the bishop's forehead to let him know that this was the real deal. There is a relic that backs up this story, the bishop's skull. The Saint-Gervais (san zher-VAY) basilica in Avranches (ah-vrahn-sh) has a skull on display that bears a round hole and it has been venerated for centuries as St. Aubert’s (oh-BAIR's). The bishop built the chapel and it was consecrated on October 16, 709. When people were told that this chapel was inspired by the archangel, it became a pilgrimage site. There were so many manuscripts and books kept here that people started calling it "The City of Books." 

The bishop sent a community of canons to the chapel and they served for 250 years until Duke Richard I replaced them with Benedictine monks in 966. A Benedictine abbey was then built there and the Benedictine abbey lasted for 832 years, broken into two periods because the abbey was not without conflict. 

In 1067, the Mount supported William the Conquerer and he rewarded it with with property on the English side of the channel. King Philip II of France tried to capture it in 1203 and part of it was burnt in the melee. Fortunately, he apologized for the damage by building the monastery known as La Merveille (“The Wonder”) for the monks. The decision was made that the island needed to be fortified and so stronger walls were built in 1256 and it was able to resist sieges during the Hundred Year War between England and France (1337–1453) and the French Wars of Religion (1562–98). That Hundred Year War is the one that Joan of Arc became prominent during. But many years were spent in peace until the monastery went into decline during the 18th century. By the French Revolution, there were only seven monks at the abbey. The revolution caused its total dissolution for this first period of its Benedictine time in 1791. Napoleon I felt that the site would make the perfect prison as it was fortified and hard to reach. Mont-Saint-Michel would be a prison from 1791 to 1863, 72 years. The nickname "Bastille of the Seas" was given to it. A Wheel Room was built in the monks' former ossuary with an enormous wheel that could hoist food up to the prisoners held in the abbey. High profile political dissidents and revolutionaries were the main prisoners from the 1830s into the 1840s and this caused a lot of public protests. Writer Victor Hugo spearheaded a restoration campaign with writings that rallied the public to protest prisoners being kept in a place that was a medieval abbey that should be returned to such use. He wrote in a letter to the poet Louise Bertin on June 27, 1836 from Mont Saint-Michel, "Around us, everywhere as far as the eye can see, infinite space, the blue horizon of the sea, the green horizon of the earth, the clouds, the air, the freedom, the birds flying on all wings, […] and then, suddenly, there, in a crest of an old wall, above our heads, through a barred window, the pale figure of a prisoner. Never have I felt more keenly than here the cruel antitheses that man sometimes makes with nature." Public pressure worked at the prison was closed in 1863. 

In 1864, the Service des Monuments Historiques (sehr-vees day mon-y-muhnt eez-tor-eek) restored the building and opened it to the public. This proved to be a popular tourist spot and a road dike was built in 1879 to help with transportation. Five years before that, in 1874, it was classified as a historic monument. 

By 1901, a steam tramway was constructed from the town of Pontorson (pohn-tor-sohn) to the Mount. At this time, efforts were made to restore various buildings in the village that had fallen into disrepair and new buildings were also built in the Norman and Gothic Revival styles. The Mount survived both World Wars, but it was occupied by the Germans from 1940 to 1944. Towards the end of the War in August of 1944, an American Private named Freeman Brougher from Pennsylvania went to the Mount with two British reporters, Gault MacGowan of the New York Sun and Paul Holt with the London Daily Express and the men liberated Mont-Saint-Michel. Crowds were very happy and welcomed them and the mayor invited the American soldier to sign the Golden Book, the island's record of visiting nobility. The Benedictine monks returned in 1966 to celebrate the 1,000- year anniversary of the founding of their order. In 1979, UNESCO added Mont Saint-Michel and its bay to its list of World Heritage sites. The Benedictines stayed until 2001 when the brothers and sisters of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem replaced them at the site. They remain and welcome pilgrims and visitors from all over the world. Car parks were built on the mainland to facilitate visitors and the old road dyke is now a walkway bridge. Today, Mont Saint-Michael is a major tourist spot and a small village of about 50 people and there are 132 hotel rooms. What people will find here includes the prominent abbey church that towers over the island and has an imposing 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque nave. This was built over four crypts. The main entrance leads into a fortified guard room that was staffed during the Hundred-Years War.

Creating the abbey was an architectural feat that continued to be added upon. There was an elegant choir in Flamboyant Gothic style that was built starting in 1450. The tower and spire were added in the 19th century. The tower has a statue of St. Michael atop it that was created in 1897 by the sculptor Emmanuel Frémiet at the request of the architect Victor Petitgrand. The statue was restored in 1987 and regilded in 2016.

Saint Michael has always been considered the leader of the heavenly host and is the leading defender against evil, specifically the dragon. He is usually depicted with a sword and a set of scales. Medieval people believed Saint Michael was the one who guided the dead into the afterlife and weighed souls on the Day of Judgement. After the Hundred Years’ War, the French held Saint Michael to be a patriotic figure. There is a the west terrace that was the original forecourt of the abbey church and has a panoramic view of the bay. There is a rich biodiversity in the bay. The view also includes a view of the abbey church, the bays of the cloister and the spire under the feet of the archangel. The site also has the 1228 Gothic monastery known as La Merveille, translated as The Marvel that is a group of Gothic buildings. It has both a religious look and and a fortress look with a refectory that has high, narrow windows and a cloister with sculptures. The cloister is at the top of The Marvel and was built in the 13th century. It is trapezoidal in shape and has a garden and a covered gallery that runs around it. The garden is separated by an original colonnade, composed of 137 columns arranged in staggered rows and forming tripods, which support the vault and the roof of the cloister gallery. The garden being open to the sky and this high up, aided the monks in their meditations and feeling closer to God and heaven. A chapter house was supposed to be built off it, but this never happened. 

The Refectory with all of its windows is always filled with natural light and the monks would eat here in silence while another monk stood at the pulpit and read to them. The Guests’ Hall is beneath the Refectory and was used to house kings and nobles when they came to visit. 

St. Peter's Church was dedicated to the patron saint of fisherman and is a small parish church in the middle of the village just below the main abbey. It was built between the 15th and 16th centuries. The Grand Rue is a steep, winding main street that is lined with the houses and shops of the village. Everything is surrounded by the Ramparts that remind everyone that this place used to have to keep out invaders. The Almshouse is beneath the Hall of Guests and the monks welcomed the poor and pilgrims from all walks of life. The Lace Staircase is amazing and is the highest point accessible to visitors. It spans one of the flamboyant gothic buttresses and was built at the time of the reconstruction of the choir, which was completed in 1523. The staircase is a real piece of Gothic art. 

With the history behind this site, it isn't surprising that there are reports of ghosts here. After all, it was originally named Mount Grave. People refer to the waters and sands around the Mount as Red Sands. That red represents blood. The blood of fallen soldiers. Local folklore claims that on quiet, stormy nights, the tides turn red and the cries of fallen soldiers are heard. The sounds of battles are also heard. Sometimes there is the sound of chanting and praying as well. And there are even bells because a legend claims a great flood took out a forest and village that was once here.

There are several legends connected to the Mount too. A legend claims that Saint Michael and the Dragon had their battle here, not in Heaven. And another claims that Saint Michael and the Devil were neighbors here at the bay. Saint Michael had a bunch of sand, but the Devil had rich farmland. The two agreed to split the harvest and the Devil decided he wanted the top of the crops and so Saint Michael got the roots. The first year, up came onions, carrots, and turnips. There were no top crops, so the Devil chose the roots the next year. Up came wheat that year. The Devil was pissed and so he decided to fight Michael. Michael kicked him so hard, it is said the Devil ended up near Mortain and people say you can still see claw marks on the rocks where he fell. There is a legend linking Mont Saint-Michel to Dante’s Hell and this plays on the idea of subterranean chambers, hidden passageways, and the sensation of being trapped in an otherworldly space. In Dante’s Inferno, Hell is depicted as a series of descending circles, each reserved for different sins and punishments. Some modern myths and local folklore suggest that beneath Mont Saint-Michel, there are secret tunnels, caverns, or even portals that could lead to an underworld—a concept that aligns with the dramatic architecture and mystical atmosphere of the site. However, these ideas are purely fictional and have no basis in historical fact. Instead, they tap into the rich tradition of using Mont Saint-Michel’s remote, almost inaccessible position as a symbol of both spiritual transcendence and the darker, unknown realms that lie beneath the surface of human experience.

The walls of the Mount are still inscribed by men who were prisoners here and left their marks behind. Some of their spirits were left behind as well. Their disembodied voices are heard. 

One of the commanders at the abbey was Captain Louis d’Estouville (dess-toot-veel). He served during the Hundred Year War. He led his troops into slaughtering thousands of English soldiers and the ground was soaked with their blood. This was during a brutal battle in 1434 with the English being led by Thomas de Scales into a full assault on the abbey. The Captain had a force of only 300 and they managed to kill 2,000 English soldiers.  One of the things that helped is that the tide came in, trapping the English. Many of them drowned. When the English were finally able to retreat, they left behind two massive wrought-iron siege guns called bombards or Michelettes and these heavy cannons still sit near the entrance gate today. The Captain also seems to have remained, guarding the Mount in the afterlife. His apparition has been seen on the ramparts.

People also claim to see phantom monks that appear as shadowy figures wearing robes. These apparitions roam the ancient stone hallways and crypts and it is thought this is because their burials within the abbey had been disturbed through the years. 

Mont-Saint-Michel looks like a location straight out of a fairy tale. It's history has nothing to do with fairy tales though/ A place of spirituality became a place of imprisonment and is today a place to embrace spirituality again while enjoying the architecture and beauty near Normandy. Is Mont-Saint-Michel haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 490 - Palace of Versailles

 

Moment in Oddity - The Great Potoo Bird

There are many strange and captivating animals on this planet. One of which I recently discovered is the Great Potoo bird. They are found in the Neo-tropics and look more like flying black eyed muppet child than an actual bird. There are seven species of potoo and the majority have eyes that look similar to owl eyes being that they are quite large for the size of their head and tend to have yellow or orange irises. However, the Great Potoo or Nyctibius (Nick-tih-BYE-us) grandis have very dark brown irises giving them the distinctive appearance of a black eyed child or demon possessed bird. They are fuel for nightmares. All potoos are nocturnal insectivores with a beak so thin it looks more like claw coming out of the center of its head, that is until they open their giant maw! Their mouths opens from ear to ear, giving them the appearance of being ALL mouth, the only thing one can compare this to is perhaps what Barbara, played by Geena Davis, does to her head in Beetlejuice. Thus displaying how she plans to scare off the new home owners. If the mental picture I'm painting for you isn't enough, then google their call and imagine hearing that in the pitch dark! Shivers! They are also able to camouflage extremely well, so basically you would just be left wondering what monstrous creature is preparing to eat you. I love all creatures and given the opportunity, would certainly interact with this bizarre, black eyed bird, but as you can tell from my descriptions, the Great Potoo, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - CA Proposition 13

In the month of June, on the 6th, in 1978, California voted in Proposition 13 by an overwhelming margin. This was an amendment to California's Constitution that signified the taxpayers’ collective response to dramatic increases in property taxes and a growing state revenue surplus. The amendment reverted the most recent assessments to the 1975 market value levels. This limited the property tax rate to one percent plus the rate needed to fund local voter-approved bonded indebtedness. It also limited future property tax increases to a maximum of 2% per year. Under Proposition 13, California properties would be reassessed to current market value only when there was a change in ownership or if the property had undergone new construction. This proposition led to the possibilities of significant variances in property taxes with the assessed values being based solely on the dates the properties were purchased. Long time owners could only be raised the 2% limit from year to year while a neighboring property of similar land and build that was recently purchased, could be significantly higher to approximate market levels.

Palace of Versailles

The entire estate that is part of the Palace of Versailles covers 1,978 acres. The grounds are immaculate and amazing and the palace itself defies words. What started as a simple hunting lodge, became the seat of power in France and is today a museum featuring the most exquisite artwork and craftsmanship of any palace in the world. The palace has also been the setting for a strange time travel story and for ghost stories. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Palace of Versailles. 

The earliest mention of Versailles is in a document dating to 1038. The lord of the village here was Hugo de Versaillis and that is whom it is named for and the word Versailles means "turn the soil." This was a small village, but it did manage to flourish because it was on a road leading from Paris to Normandy and so it benefitted from the trade along the route. The Plague and Hundred Years War devastated Versailles. King Louis XIII would make visits to the area to hunt and he grew a real fondness for the feudal village. In 1624, he ordered that a small hunting lodge should be built. This was a cozy chateau made from red brick and was designed by Philibert Le Roy. The western side of the chateau had an ornamental garden with a fountain and pathways. By 1632, the King was enlarging the chateau, adding exterior towers to the four corners and a dry moat. 

King Louis XIV would succeed Louis XIII and his getting into this world wasn't easy. His parents had been married for twenty-three years and his mother had suffered four stillbirths before she was able to carry him to full-term and birth. People called this a miracle and his name reflected that as it meant "God-given." On a side note, Louis XIII was said to have fathered an illegitimate son who was imprisoned during the rule of Louis XIV and is known most famously as "The Man in the Mask." King Louis XIV was known as the Sun King and he took the throne in 1643 after his father succumbed to tuberculosis. He had a love for Versailles, just as his father did. He made the palace his primary residence and brought the French Court and Government there as well in 1682. The foundations of the grand palace would be started during his reign, but the project would be abandoned when he died in 1715. The palace would sit neglected for several years, but King Louis XV would come in 1722 and he decided to complete his great-grandfather's work. What happened here is that Louis XIV's son and grandson both died before he did, so his successor became his great-grandson. Louis XIV had designed the palace to have large, public spaces inside and Louis XV didn't care for that, so he designed smaller, more private rooms. He also completed the Royal Opera House.

Although Louis XV clearly enjoyed the Palace of Versailles, he never officially lived there. He was nearly killed in 1757 when a man named Robert-Francois Damiens stabbed him between the ribs. Thankfully it was really cold and the King was layered up , so the knife wasn't able to penetrate deeply. Damiens was tortured, drawn and quartered. Perhaps some people might see this as a fitting punishment for trying to kill the King, but the Parliament didn't care for it and neither did much of the French public. Historians point to this moment as being the start of the downfall for the French monarchy. Louis XV was succeeded by Louis XVI. Louis XVI would be the last king of France. He was born in 1754 and he became king in 1774. A few years before that, in 1770, he married Marie Antoinette of Austria. He was 15 and she was 14. 

Louis was ill prepared to be king. He was the second son and never meant to be king, but his older brother died when he was only nine-years-old. Both his parents had died from tuberculosis by 1767. King Louis had some good ideas at the beginning of his reign. He wanted to abolish serfdom, which didn't please the French nobility. Louis also embraced non-Catholics, removing the land tax and labor tax and he abolished the death penalty for deserters. But he also had some bad ideas. He deregulated the grain market and before long, bread prices were way up and there was food scarcity. And although we Americans appreciated his support of our fight for independence, he drove France into debt and a financial crisis helping the colonists. Riots began in the streets as the French people became more displeased with the monarchy represented by Marie and Louis. And the public saw Antoinette as an unwelcome foreigner. They disliked the alliance with Austria.

King Louis was born at the Palace of Versailles and that is where he lived. He and Marie had four children and adopted six children. Marie was a fashion icon who loved to wear her hair big and she loved jewelry and her wealth. Her annual clothing budget was $3.6 million in today's dollars. She had trouble with learning as a child and some called her simple minded, but part of who she was came from being raised to be an aristocrat and she was continuously waited on hand and foot. Although history has credited her with saying that the French people could eat cake when she heard that there was a bread shortage, she never made that statement. Marie also got embroiled in a scandal over a very expensive stolen diamond necklace that she actually had nothing to do with, but the French people still blamed her for it. The Petit Trianon on the palace estate became her personal estate and she embellished it greatly with artwork and furnishings. Now while she seems like an out of touch rich woman, Marie was generous. She had houses built on the estate for the poor to live in and she took part in charitable endeavors. But all that good couldn't heal the rift that was growing between the monarchy and the French people. 

By 1789, the public had had enough. A meeting of the Estates-General was convened to discuss raising tax money. The representatives of the people of France were known as the Third Estate. Whenever there was a vote the First Estate, which was the Clergy, and the Second Estate, which were the nobility, usually would join forces to vote against the Third Estate. The Third Estate was done with this business and they proceeded with a new general assembly to write a new constitution. King Louis allowed the assembly to go forward, but he also gathered his troops. This worried the people and eventually an angry crowd stormed the Bastille fortress in July of 1789. This was the beginning of the French Revolution. 

Women marched to the Palace of Versailles in October of 1789 and they demanded that the starving people be given bread. Thousands soon joined them and the palace distributed bread, but it soon ran out. By the next morning, the protestors had broken into the palace. The Marquis de Lafayette rescued the Queen and escorted the royals back to Paris. A former lover of the Queen's, the Swedish Count Von Fersen, helped the royal couple escape the palace where they were imprisoned in Paris. The couple dressed as peasants to throw off the guards and boarded a carriage headed to the French border. Marie and Louis made horrible peasants and they drew too much attention to themselves and soon a man recognized Louis from his face on the paper money of France. The couple were arrested and taken back to Paris. Legend claims that Marie's hair turned to white from her fear and shock. King Louis was guillotined in January of 1793 and nine months later, Marie was also guillotined. Many people soaked their sleeves in her blood. The monarchy of France was finished. The Palace of Versailles, fortunately, was left undamaged.

Many of the royal possessions were taken to museums and much of the other stuff was auctioned off. Napoleon became Emperor of France in the early 1800s and he decided not to live at the palace because he didn't want to give an image of the monarchy. He lived at the Trianon. The palace property was converted into a museum and sometimes served other roles for the national government. It played host to the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, that ended WWI. The Palace has been expanded and renovated through the years and usually gets around eight million visitors a year. There are over 2,300 rooms in the Palace and the property includes the Great Stables, vast gardens, the Royal Chapel and the Estate of Trianon. In 1979, the Palace was named a World Heritage site.

One of the most impressive areas of the palace is The Hall of Mirrors. This is the most famous room in the Palace. There had once been a large terrace here that opened onto the garden that was between the King's Apartments and the Queen's Apartment's. That terrace had been designed by Louis Le Vau and it was certainly not something to add to his resume because people thought it looked awkward and it was susceptible to bad weather. It was demolished and replaced with the Hall, starting in 1678. The hall would take six years to complete and was designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart in the Baroque style. The Hall has 17 windows on the wall facing the park and on the opposite wall are 17 mirrors. These mirrors were made from 350 individual mirror surfaces and added a great effect of mirror the park into the interior of the Palace. These mirrors were a sign of the wealth of the monarchy as producing mirrors was expensive. These mirrors have a dark legend connected to them. The French didn't know how to make mirrors, so they hired Venetian artisans to create the mirrors. The Venetian government didn't want the secrets of the mirror-making techniques to be known, so they had the artisans assassinated. We don't think this bloody tale is true as the order for the mirrors went to a French factory and this broke the monopoly Venice had on mirror-making.

The Hall is lit by massive chandeliers and there is lots of gold coloring everywhere. Originally, 3,000 candles would be used to light the Hall. The vaulted ceiling features 30 paintings by Le Brun that pay tribute to France's economic and political successes. There are Rouge de Rance pilasters topped with capitals of gilded bronze. Le Brun designed these as well, incorporating the national emblems of a fleur-de-lis topped by a royal sun between two Gallic roosters. Originally, there had been solid silver furniture in here that was melted down and coined by Louis XIV to finance the War of the League of Augsburg. The other original furnishings were lost during the French Revolution. The furniture in there today is from the 19th century. Sculptures in the room are marble and porphyry busts of eight Roman emperors and then there are Greek and Roman deities that have been paid tribute to, which include Venus, Hermes, Bacchus, the Muses and Diana. Louis XIV visited the Hall every day, which makes sense since it was mainly a tribute to him. Court festivities were held in here like balls and weddings. This is where Louis XVI and Marie were married.

The other jewel of the Palace is the Royal Chapel, which has been under restoration for several years. This is said to be the spiritual legacy of Louis XIV and this was his last major building project. It was announced in 1682, but work didn't start until 1699 and took eleven years to complete. The Chapel stands taller than the Palace at nearly 132 feet. Hardouin-Mansart designed the Chapel. The stonework facade is interrupted by large windows, there are Corinthian pilasters and there are 30 statues made by 16 sculptors on the balustrade. The roof has decorative lead work that was once covered in gold leaf. The interior has frescoes on the ceiling, stained glass windows and several free-standing columns. A large ornate organ, which was designed by Clicquot, provided music. This was decorated with a relief of King David. There is a balcony with the royal gallery where the king and his family sat. The ladies of the court sat in side galleries.

Other highlights of the Palace include the Gallery of Great Battles, which covers nearly the entire first floor of the South Wing. The Gallery is decorated with marble and is lit by glass ceilings in the vault. There are 30 paintings that depict 15 centuries of French military successes and 80 busts of officers killed in battle. Bronze tables feature the names of princes, and other officers who were wounded or killed. This is the largest room in the Palace and was completed in 1837. There are several historic galleries to visit like the Empire Rooms, Coronation Room, Crusades Rooms and the North and South Attics. And the King's State Apartment and the Countess Du Barry's Apartments are not to be missed. The Countess was Louis XV last mistress. The apartments are lavish and reached by the King's Staircase. They open up onto the Marble and Stag Courtyards.

The most well known paranormal story connected to the palace has been described as a time travel event. For us, a ghost encounter could just simply be a time/space slip and so that could be what had happened here. Charlotte Anne Moberly was the headmistress of St. Hugh's College for Women in Oxford. Her assistant had been a former student of the college named Eleanor Jourdain. These two English ladies decided to take a trip to France and they couldn't resist the opportunity to visit the Palace of Versailles. It was a hot summer day in August of 1901 when the ladies arrived at the palace. After touring the palace, they decided to walk over to Trianon. They got a bit turned around and asked a couple of men for directions. They were struck at the look of the men. They looked like they were dressed in costumes: green coats and three-cornered hats. They also were carrying spades. As the women continued along their route, they both started to feel a bit distressed and they couldn't explain why. They ran into another man who was sitting near a Chinese kiosk and he stared at the women in a menacing way. Miss Moberly felt even more distressed after this, but then another man with curly hair and dark eyes came up to them and he spoke in a language that was hard to understand and he seemed to be telling them to continue along a path to the right. A bit down this way, the ladies saw a woman who was wearing a period dress and white hat, drawing a picture. Miss Moberly was very disconcerted at this point.

The women returned to Paris and Miss Moberly asked Miss Jourdain, "Do you think the Petit Trianon is haunted?" Without hesitation, Miss Jourdain answered, "Yes." They discussed everything they saw, compared notes and decided that something strange had happened to them. The women had each noticed little things that seemed off. Not just in regards to the people they met, but with their surroundings. There was no wind and everything seemed flat about the landscape. A woman standing outside of a house with a jug seemed almost to be a wax figure. As Miss Moberly thought about the woman who was drawing, she became convinced that the woman had been Marie Antoinette. They returned to the location several times and tried to retrace their steps and never found a landscape or buildings that matched what they had seen during their first weird visit. The two women decided to risk ridicule and wrote of their expierience in a book they published in 1911 under the title "An adventure," translated as “Les fantômes de Trianon” in French. The book was actually very successful. And while many people believed that the women just made up the story, a discovery lends credence to their story. An old architectural plan of the Trianon was discovered and it revealed that a Chinese kiosk had indeed existed in 1774 as did a bridge the women suggested they crossed that was no longer on the property. 

Skeptics have debunked the story as a possible hallucination or embellished story. Each time the story was printed, it did seem to be more embellished. Art historian and biographer Philippe Jullian wrote in his 1965 biography about an aristocratic French poet named Robert de Montesquiou. He apparently lived near the palace grounds and he liked to host fancy dress parties in which his friends would wear costumes, particularly period costumes. Jullian reasoned that the women simply stumbled upon one of his parties. Brian Dunning of Skeptoid wrote of the experience, "It was only after much discussion, note-sharing, and historical research that Moberly and Jourdain came up with the time period as 1789 and assigned identities to a few of the characters they saw, including Marie Antoinette herself as the lady sketching on the lawn." Dunning figured since the ladies were lost that they had stumbled upon another property and that was where the bridges and kiosks they had described were located. So what happened here?

There is another account that claims some similar weird happenings. That account goes that Miss Jourdain and Miss Moberly were not the only witnesses to the time slip phenomena at Versailles. An English family who lived for two years in an apartment overlooking the gardens observed similar happenings throughout their residence and when they returned later for a visit it became evident that they had never seen the modern (early 20th C.) Versailles while they were living there. They also observed the painting lady while in the gardens, and she pulled her canvas away when the son of the family (himself an artist) tried to get a closer view.

So maybe these were all ghosts that the women had seen or maybe it was some kind of weird time slip or maybe it was nothing supernatural at all, but that isn't the only paranormal thing that has happened at the palace. Former occupants may be here now in spirit form. The most infamous couple to live here, of course, were King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Lots of trauma is connected here. We have this couple being whisked away by an angry crowd and they were ultimately beheaded and then there was the French Revolution. Visitors and staff claim to feel cold spots and to see white mists by Marie Antoinette’s bed in Petit de Trianon. Apparitions are seen in the Queen’s apartment and this is where Marie's spirit seems to spend most of her time. Marie's ghost does get around too. She is also said to haunt the La Conciergerie, where she was held captive for five weeks until her beheading in 1792. This is Paris' oldest prison and the Queen's sobs are said to still be heard to this day.

King Louis XVI's apparition roams the halls of the palace. Some wonder if he is looking for his family. Orbs have been seen, cold spots have been felt and other apparitions have been seen. One of the other ghosts is said to belong to Benjamin Franklin. He had visited the royal couple in 1778 and perhaps he so enjoyed his stay that he likes to hang around in the afterlife. Former President Charles de Gaulle had used  the Northern wing of Grand Trianon as his offices during his Presidency and his spirit has been seen a few times. The Grand Trianon also hosts the spirit of Napolean Bonparte who stayed there with his second wife on several occasions.

Maree wrote, "I visited Versailles in 2007 and I assure you that there are ghosts in that place. I felt really bad in Marie Antoinette's room, I felt cold, I had the feeling of extreme sadness, fear and a lot of anger. I heard voices, sounds of metal banging, things breaking and footsteps. And yet, I was alone, on a stairway near the queen's room. I dragged myself to one of the gardens, where there was a fountain and this garden was dead; the air is heavy, there are no animals like birds, butterflies, nothing. Only this heavy silence. It is oppressive and that experience scared me to death. I'll never be in this place again."

The Palace of Versailles was the setting for some important historical events, not just for France, but for the world. Did a bizarre time slip occur here? Are there spirits wandering around the property? Is the Palace of Versailles haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 154 - Catacombs of Paris

Moment in Oddity - Cryotherapy Kills Woman

Cryotherapy is a one of the latest health crazes. People claim that it reduces pain, helps with weight loss, improves sleep and athletic performance and slows the aging process. The participant steps into a cylindrical chamber that leaves only their head outside of the machine. Then supercooled air is blasted all around the body for 2 to 3 minutes. The feeling is similar to an ice bath. We're not sure if cryotherapy actually has any of the benefits it claims to have, but we do know one thing. It can kill you! Near Halloween of 2015, Chelsea Ake-Salvacion was working at a Las Vegas spa that offered cryptherapy. She decided she would like to enjoy a session after hours. She was alone that evening closing up. She was found frozen to death the following morning by co-workers. She apparently lost consciousness and it was ruled that she died from asphyxia due to low levels of oxygen. Cyrotherapy sounds horrifying to us warm weather gals and freezing oneself solid while trying to administer cold therapy, certainly is odd!

This Day in History - Three Blind Mice Published

On this day, October 12th, in 1609, the children's nursery rhyme "Three Blind Mice" is published. It was written by a teen-aged Thomas Ravenscroft. Ravenscroft was an English musician who collected folk music. He was a music theorist as well. The rhyme did not become a part of children's literature until 1842. It is believed that the rhyme has historical and political meanings behind it. The catchy tune speaks of three blind mice, which historians believe refers to three Protestant bishops who served during the time of Queen Mary I of England, otherwise known as Bloody Mary. She got that nickname because she executed Protestants. These bishops were Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer and they were burned at the stake. The blindness more than likely refers to the fact that they weren't Catholic and Protestants were considered blind. So that should make it fun to sing-a-long with the kids now!

Catacombs of Paris (Suggested by Bob Sherfield)

Paris is the City of Lights, but deep in the darkness, beneath the streets, in the underground, lie hundreds of miles of tunnels that make up a vast ossuary for the dead. These tunnels are dangerous and largely unmapped, with pitfalls and areas filled with water and discarded remnants of the dead. One could easily become lost in the maze of stones and bones. These areas are restricted from public access for good reason. Could there be something down there in the Catacombs that is unseen? Are the spirits of the displaced bones now residing within the stones? Is there something evil down in those tunnels? Join us as we share the history and hauntings of the Catacombs of Paris!

Les Carrieres de Paris are more commonly known as The Catacombs. The name technically means quarries and that is what this tunnel system originally was before it was given its macabre purpose. We need to rewind back millions of years to study the history of this tunnel system. Paris and France were covered by a tropical sea millions of years ago. The sea bed was covered with sediment that covered over everything with lime that eventually became limestone. Much of Paris was built with limestone and it was harvested from these quarries beneath the city. The mining began as early as the First Century AD. Structures like the Louvre, the Notre Dame Cathedral and Place de la Concorde were all built from what has been dubbed "Paris Stone."

A few years before the French Revolution, sickness within the city of Paris was killing many people. Poor sanitary conditions, including how the dead were disposed of, led to the outbreak of disease. The cemeteries in Paris were overpopulated and the result was bodies unearthing themselves and improper burials. People who lived near the cemeteries were complaining of the stench and becoming ill. Something needed to be done and King Louis XV issued an edict in 1763 banning burials within the city of Paris. This was not just new burials, it was the past burials as well. The Church was reluctant to desecrate graves and refused to move any bodies. So nothing was done at that time.

Tunnels would be mined until they were completely emptied of the limestone and the quarries would then be abandoned. There were miles of unmapped tunnels beneath the city and the King wanted to make sure to shore up these underground mazes beneath the city. On April 4th in 1777, Louis XVI established the Quarries Inspectorate and made it responsible for the renovation of the tunnels. This fell under the office of the Police Prefect Lieutenant-General Alexandre Lenoir. In 1780, a long and heavy rain caused a wall of the largest and oldest cemetery in Paris, Les Innocents, to cave in completely. The result was hundreds of rotting corpses flowing out of the cemetery into the city. City officials and the Church had no choice, but to find an alternative for the bones.

Lieutenant-General Lenoir supported the idea of using the abandoned tunnels as ossuaries. The macabre task of moving bodies began in 1786 when the former Tombe-Issoire quarries were blessed and consecrated. The bones were moved under the dark of night by parades of black cloaked wagons. It took two years to transfer all the bones from the Les Innocents cemetery. Bones were moved from the other outer cemeteries over the next few decades. New burials were also brought to the tunnels that were now known as the Catacombs. In the beginning, bones were unceremoniously dumped into the tunnels. In 1810, Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury became head of the Paris Mine Inspection Service and he decided to organize the Catacombs. He implemented stacking bones and skulls along the walls and this same design can be seen today. He also used cemetery memorials to decorate the walls and archways were built.

One of the first visitors was the future King Charles X, who was at the the time Count of Artois in 1787. In 1814, it was felt that the Catacombs were fit to be opened to the public. Many people who came through disrespected the burials and some would take mementos, so it was decided in 1830 to allow only people given special permission to tour the Catacombs. The Church had not been happy with any of the touring going on and in 1833 they demanded that the Catacombs be closed from public view. In 1850, limited visits were opened to the public and those have become more often until our present day, which has almost daily tours that last around 45 minutes. The tour covers less than two miles of the 200 miles of tunnels. Guests are greeted at the entrance with, "Halt, this is the realm of Death!"

Cemeteries are not typically haunted, but the Catacombs are home to so many dead who died in so many horrible ways that it only seems natural that spirits would reside here. People were buried here who had died from sickness and natural death, but others included members of the Swiss Guard killed in the storming of the Tuileries Palace on 10 August 1792.  There was a massacre in September 1792 and those victims were placed in the Catacombs. And there were those killed by the guillotine. They were transferred there from their original burial pits. There were many bones just dumped without ceremony and burials were desecrated. These all make for a perfect storm of paranormal activity.

Legends speak of talking walls within the catacombs. People have ventured beyond the no admittance signs and one urban explorer took a camera with him many years ago. That camera was found laying in a tunnel, but the explorer was nowhere to be seen. The video made it onto TV on the show "Scariest Places on Earth" and features a typical urban exploration video of abandoned tunnels. But the explorer's breathing soon picks up, as does his pace. Soon the video drops to the ground and the explorer is seen running from the camera that tapes until it ran out of tape or battery. There are claims that necromancy and dark black magic rituals have been performed in some of the tunnels. Have they conjured something evil?

Philibert Aspairt was the doorkeeper of the Val-de-Grâce hospital in Paris during the French Revolution. In November of 1793, he decided to venture into the Catacombs to find a hidden stock of liquor. A passage from the hospital led directly to a tunnel of the Catacombs and he used that to enter the ossuary. He carried one candle, which probably lost its light fairly quickly. With a couple hundred miles of serpentine tunnels, it is easy to believe that Philibert became lost. People know that he died down here because eleven years later, his remains were found in one of the galleries and identified by the key ring of the Val-de-Grâce he carried. He also had a bottle of liquor nearby. The tragedy of this was that he was near an exit. He was buried where he was found and his epithet reads:

THE MEMORY OF PHILIBERT ASPAIRT
LOST IN THIS QUARRY ON NOVEMBER 3RD 1793
FOUND ELEVEN YEARS LATER
AND BURIED AT THE SAME PLACE
ON APRIL 30TH 1804

On the 3rd of November every year, it is said that his ghost appears in the galleries of the Catacombs.

Zak Bagans visited the Catacombs without Ghost Adventures. During his investigation, he caught a female voice talking and laughing. There was also an apparition that appeared as a glowing mist moving away fromone of the cameras. The misty figure appears to be wearing a cloak. People claim to hear voices, feel as though they are being followed and some even claim that something has tried to strangle them. Ghost lights and misty images have been captured on film.

sonybravo on Reddit: My girlfriend went there a few years ago but she was only allowed to go in the safe areas. She said she heard a lot of weird noises and footsteps but was only there for two days. She's not a girl to get scared by the paranormal either. But she told me the tour guide said that if you go past the tourist safety areas then you're on your own. I asked her if there was any serious dangerous areas that you couldn't go to and she said yes there is. I asked would it be wise to go near these points and she said No it's not. You can get lost very easily and if you don't know how to get out you will die down there.

The Catacombs are creepy, but also a great location in which to house the dead. They are protected within these walls. Are some of the spirits of the displaced haunting the Catacombs? Is there something evil that has been conjured here? Could something dark be drawn to this place of so much death? Are the Catacombs of Paris haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:
Video featuring lost urban explorer in Catacombs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkiaJDtt4II