The cursed places - France of mysteries - Full documentary - HD - MG

The France of mysteries There is the France that you know. With its unmissable monuments, its breathtaking landscapes and its magnificent villages. But behind these places sometimes hides a more secret, more surprising and worrying France. What if we discovered behind the scenes, the hidden side of our country? Who has never heard of a ghost village, a castle with a tragic destiny or even places haunted, even possessed by devils? Our country is full of these places with a disastrous destiny, which have become cursed places due to popular beliefs. Between historical reality and legend, the mystery remains for these places which have gone through tragic episodes and sometimes deserved their bad reputation. We will set off to discover astonishing sites which, despite their great beauty, hide dark secrets and on which a curse has fallen. In the Black Périgord, a strange castle brings to life the terrible legend of the Bouc de Reignac. He's really, really, really terrifying. At the tip of Brittany, you will find that the breakers can drive you crazy. If I had to talk to someone about it and present it very quickly, I think I would say the same thing that we have always said for 150 years now Tévennec is “It’s hell”. In the heart of the Cévennes, planes crash for no reason, spitting completely inexplicable. In Loudun, the devil comes to possess the nuns of a convent. It is said that we see devils flying in the streets. In the 12th century, a queen cast a spell on Rocca Sparviera and the village was nothing more than a ruin. Everywhere in France, from the hinterland of Nice to the tip of Brittany, the curse resonates in the courtyards of castles, at the doors of public buildings or even at the top of a deserted mountain. Each time, it takes on a new face. Murderous madness, demonic possession, excessive greed, bewitchment, spell and in all cases, the sublime rubs shoulders with the sordid, the beautiful rubs shoulders with the frightening. If you think you know everything about these unmissable monuments, if you think you know everything about the history of these villages, come and discover the hidden side of these places which have within them this element of mystery which makes them so different from the others. Between repulsion and attraction, let's discover cursed France together. The Forte house in Reignac The Dordogne is full of troglodyte wonders hidden on the side of cliffs. Caves, houses or castles are all half-buried treasures protected by stone. But it sometimes happens that the beauty of a place hides dark secrets, that its attraction plunges us into a world with darker, even frightening contours. The Forte house in Reigniac is a particularly daunting example. It's a place that is both eerie, but at the same time exudes a human warmth that I haven't experienced in some other cave places. Built at the beginning of the Middle Ages, this intact residence leaves no one indifferent. It fascinates and immediately immerses you in a dark and captivating universe. Everything spoke to me. Everything spoke to me. The stone, the ancestors, the characters. This house came to life in my imagination. Compared to other troglodyte places, this house is inhabited by ghosts, souls, spirits. Could Maison Forte de Reignac be a haunted castle? We feel that there are presences here that are sometimes also evil. And what can we say about this disturbing character inseparable from this troubled period? At that time, the lord of the place, who was the Lord of Reignac and who was supposed to protect the entire region, was an unsavory character. Could the one we nicknamed the Goat of Reignac be at the origin of the curse? Still, the house seems forever marked by the crimes of the time. There is a force there, there is truly an evil presence. I immediately felt oppressed in this small room. And I clearly understood that some not very Catholic things had happened. To answer all these questions, we have to go back to the beginning of the 12th century. In these dark times, the region is suddenly the scene of repeated news events. It is even said that a bandit, dressed in animal skin, robbed travelers crossing the Vézère valley. At the same time, ecclesiastics are murdered for no reason and young shepherdesses curiously disappear. No apparent connection between these events, except that they all correspond to the arrival of a new Lord in Reignac. His name was Jaquemet de Reignac. Jaquemet de Reignac will be squire at the Montignac stables. Then he was urged by his father to go on the First Crusade. A few years later, after the death of his father, here, at the Forte de Reignac house, he returned and began to organize the police. And it is this man with a tough character, marked by the Crusades and these long years spent in Turkish rule, it is this intransigent man who takes the reins of the region and does not lose an opportunity to show his power and his cruelty. . He tortures and executes as he sees fit. Quite officially, he hanged a dozen Jews who had granted usurious loans to Catholics, which was forbidden. All-powerful, he makes his law reign, installing terror wherever he goes. Despite this, the killings and disappearances continue. The power of Sarlat will tell him “Do an investigation. » The investigation lasts a year. We don't find anything. So, in high places, we wonder. Would the Bouc de Reignac make things last and what would be the benefit? Doubt sets in and for good reason, the man hiding behind all these atrocities is none other than the Lord of Reignac himself. It is because he was the lord of this house, because he was the lord of the region, that he was able to abuse his prerogatives and his power. Feared by the inhabitants, he was even more feared by his servants. Egocentric and perverse, he exercised parental control over the young women of the house in order to satisfy his most basic needs. He is someone who is even more abominable than that. He sent his knights to look for young women, to identify young women and then he chose them, he took them to his room upstairs, a room of four square meters, he locked her in there and I don't tell you not the rest, but after that, it was over for the young woman. He's really, really, really terrifying. It is therefore a monster who reigns over the Forte house. But what makes him do this? The trauma of the Crusades hardly credible. Adopted son of the previous lord, the Goat actually hides a dark secret about his origins. The Goat of Regniac had been the result of a rape. His mother had been raped, it seems, by a clergyman. And he had been raised somewhat to hate religion. And this surely explains his last murder. Indeed, before leaving to join his wife who remained in Sicily, he persisted and did it again as if he wanted, one last time, to provoke the authority of Périgeux who was beginning to suspect him. In Périgueux, he assassinated the bishop's second in command. Deviant and demonic, the Goat certainly was. But didn't the Forte house reinforce the madness of this man thirsty for blood and sex? This all-powerful power that he exercised is magnified by this place which is overpowering. Indeed, the fortified house of Reignac has lost none of its power over the centuries and visitors can still feel it today. It's a fascinating place. When we arrive, we are attracted by this place, by this power. It's very high, it dominates the entire Vézère valley. It's in a mineral setting, it's really fantastic. Already, when we arrive, we have a global vision which is magnificent. We feel very small. There really is a house, a facade. From the outset, Reignac stands out and continues to surprise us. We have the impression of arriving somewhere and we are surprised because inside, it is much more beautiful, much larger and much more magical and larger than anything we could have imagined. In addition, the fireplaces, there are fires crackling in all the chimneys, there is smoke. It comes to life. It comes to life. Because Reignac also experienced gentler and quieter periods. And the perpetual evolution of the house is proof of this. First in wood, then in cob, it was fortified during the Hundred Years' War. The end of the war marks a new era for the house. We open the beautiful mullioned windows which are in the facade. We ventilate. We will say that light enters people's minds as well as homes. So. And we will live peacefully, finally, in these places. After the passage of the Goat, the dark period is over. However, the sensations remain and evil spirits take possession of the place. There is this feeling of oppression that we feel in all the rooms, because they are small rooms, and then they are loaded too. There is a lot of furniture. The atmosphere remains heavy and certain places have retained the frightening imprint of the Bouc de Reignac. The dungeon with the handcuffs inside and this almost moldy humidity, we put ourselves in the place of the characters who were imprisoned there and who only received a small piece of bread through the baffle mat or a small bowl of water. And it’s true that it’s terrifying. It's terrifying. If the goat has remained in legend, he is not the only occupant of the place to have marked the history of Reignac. There is also the alchemist who was Léopold de Bonaventure, who has his cave on the upper terrace, who indulged in experiments that could have led him to the stake at the time, so he had to hide. Reignac indeed offers discretion and tranquility allowing suspicious or even prohibited activities to be hidden. It is then said that the fortified house would have sheltered the heretical practices of Leopold. It's about black magic and witchcraft. He is inspired by the shamans of prehistory, therefore he himself is communicated with the beyond. He also made an elixir of eternal life. Murder, rape, torture and later, witchcraft, all the ingredients are there to make the house a cursed, even haunted, place. It's obvious, yes. For example, behind the grid of dungeons is the knight in the iron mask and the knight in the iron mask, we immediately feel that he is inhabited by a soul. Many visitors say they feel the spirits still occupying the place. But beyond this impression, some have noticed much more concrete and disturbing manifestations. It was nighttime, so the electricity was out. We were in total darkness and we used cameras with infrared sensors. So, we don't have a flash, we're really in infrared. There is no light. We had something that came out, let's say, from the ceiling, that way, which moved towards the camera and which came back up with little pulsations, it looked like a little jellyfish. And that was the first observation that alerted us that perhaps there could be something else. Something else or someone else? Because beyond the visual manifestations, much more disturbing phenomena have been recorded. We captured electronic voice phenomena, what we call PVEs. - at the stake ! Was in the torture room, on the reproduction room and so We asked to give the names of the members of the group. And then out came Christian. And Christian is me. And so it sends shivers down the spine. Why me ? But to whom do these voices from elsewhere really belong? Is the Goat of Reignac back in his home? And what to do there? It is difficult to say that it is the voice of the goat, that it is the voice of one of its victims or of another entity that inhabits the place. We could try to say that when we are in a room and it happens in that room, it is attached to the person who lived there. The walls of the Forte house still conceal many secrets. By wandering through the rooms of this castle, truly unlike any other, you will be able to see how much the place is still imbued with the harmful influence of this evil owner. But it happens that it is the place itself Tévennec that turns the lives of their occupants upside down. Many people have perished fighting against the deadly sea currents in this part of the territory better known for its breathtaking landscapes than for its dark legends. We are in the far west of Brittany, in Finistère, opposite the Baie des Trépassées. It is there, a short distance from the coast, wedged between the Pointe du Raz and the Pointe du Van, that Tévennec stands. If it was built to save lives, this lighthouse would nevertheless be the last episode of a very curious curse. If I had to talk to someone about it and introduce it very quickly, I think I would say the same thing that has always been said for 150 years now, Tévennec is hell. It's the beginning of the continent for the Bretons here, seen from the sea. Seen from landlubbers, we are at the extreme end of everything and beyond that, it's the unknown of the open sea, it's the great sea After. At the end of the continent, Tévennec stands like a final rampart. Crossing it could be dangerous and everyone has always known that. The rocks that constitute Tévennec are among the oldest rocks in France. We go back to the very beginning of the Primary era. Because in fact, this stone which emerges, like here, a little to the north, the tip of Van, these are ancient pieces of the Hercynian massif, but we go back 600, 700 million years. This lost islet just a few armfuls from the coast impresses even the most courageous. When we arrive in Tévennec, we are surprised by the atmosphere. We feel observed. We are in a special atmosphere. We are not on a simple stone. At the foot of the rock, the rock is already black, naturally black. So, we are at the foot of this large black rock. There is the small chapel in the trajectory, the fire, the fire house which is at the top, but we imagine it without that and it is a completely hostile place because the rocks are pointed, it emerges from everywhere , the currents cross all this in the sound of breaking waves when there are any or nothing but the sound of the current. Around this rock python, danger is everywhere and the sailors who approached it most often discovered it at the risk of their lives. We haven't counted them, but how many shipwrecks there were in Antiquity, in the Middle Ages and all that, we don't know. We are in the most dangerous place there is from a navigation point of view in Western Europe. It is world famous, the Pointe du Raz, the Raz de Sein, etc. Sailors traditionally said here in the region, “Take care of the Tévennec”, that is to say “Don’t come near.” Many people would never have dared to go to Tévennec. The big navigation problem in this sector is that the rising tide comes from the South and goes towards the North and the falling tide does the opposite. In the past, someone who runs out of wind or who is in the mist, who doesn't really know where he is, in the middle of the Raz de Sein, necessarily ends up on Tévennec. Being able to find your way around this area particularly dangerous is obviously a necessity. The construction of a lighthouse is necessary. But from the first blows, the darkest rumors spread and reinforced the legend of this place, decidedly unlike any other. When the State wanted to build the lighthouse on Tévennec, everyone said “We don’t touch Tévennec, it’s a sacred rock.” You know, in France, there are places like that which are ordinary, where telluric currents, magnetic zones, everything converges to make nodes or stronger places, charged as they say. And probably, Tévennec is the case. During the entire construction there were a lot of problems. The workers were terrified. At night, they heard noises, screams, complaints. They even saw specter people going here and there. So, what is the true nature of this rock python? And was the Tévennec lighthouse built on a haunted place? Legends said that before reaching the island of Saint where the souls went, they stopped at Tévennec. So, in popular memory, Tévennec has always remained a bit of a legend, a somewhat special place for ghosts. It was the place where what we call the Ankou in Breton, the maritime Ankou, stayed, that is to say in fact the representation of death. According to legend, the Ankou takes advantage of the night to sail on a frail boat in the Raz de Sein. Armed with a scythe, this servant of death would be responsible for taking the souls of the deceased to the afterlife. A good reason not to approach the area and Tévennec in particular. Crossing the Ankou has always been a very bad omen. Anyone who saw the encou perhaps one evening in the Raz de Sein was sure to die within the year. Did the lighthouse keepers have this legend in mind during the first nights spent in Tévennec? Still, he didn't last very long. No less than 25 goalkeepers in around thirty years. Was he impressed by the legend of Ankou? One of the guards always had the impression of hearing "kerzh kuit", which in Breton means "go away", he went out and found no one, but he was convinced that someone had him called. Were these guards a nuisance? Did they take the place of the ghosts on the rock python? There was a legend which said that there was a sailor, shipwrecked, who had died of starvation on Tévennec and that we could even see the trace where this sailor had died. In the lighthouse, the dramas multiply. One of the guards sees his father kidnapped by a tidal wave. Yet another is found dead in his bed, for no apparent reason. The problem was, when there was all this business with the guards, they decided to ask a priest to come and bless the island. At the same time, they had mounted a cross to cast out demons. Putting an end to this funeral saga quickly becomes a necessity and all means are good. An exorcist priest is summoned to the rock to try to ward off the evil one. Wasted effort. A few months later, a guard suffering from severe hallucinations believes he is toasting with a ghost. We are in the 19th century for the guards, at the end of the 19th century. At that time, superstition, religion, ignorance, that kind of thing, all of that mixed together in a certain obscurantism, in quotation marks. And that's why the lighthouse was automated in 1910 and why no one has stayed there since. But the legend of Tévennec holds strong and the terrible rumors still circulate. Tévennec is always part of the conversations. It is still considered a special place. Cursed, maybe a little less, but hey, among the old ones surely and it inevitably drags on. To shed light on these dark affairs, we are obviously looking for rational explanations. The origin of the ways beyond the grave was, for example, discovered by divers in the underwater depths of the island. They noticed that Tévennec was crossed by a corridor. When there were storms, the waves came in from one side and the other and made a terrible noise, a sound like siphons. People, with their imagination, believed that it was screams and so on. Despite this explanation, the mystery remains about these strange phenomena. Only one thing is certain today, since this lighthouse existed, there have been no more shipwrecks. Tévennec, in some ways, is an age-old curse. The place is an age-old curse, but obviously the lighthouse has been a blessing to all mariners for 140 years. The hostility and isolation really make Tévennec a unique place which crystallizes all kinds of popular beliefs in itself. But depending on the case, the curse can take very different forms. All over France, cursed places jealously guard their secrets. So, when plane spats multiply, can we say that the curse has struck a whole part of the Cévennes? Elsewhere, the devil got involved and in 1632, the Ursuline convent of Loudun became the scene of very curious phenomena of possession. Let's continue together on this astonishing journey into cursed France. It is in the Périgord Noir that the four walls of a once flamboyant building stand. How can this jewel be the origin of a saga as violent as it is murderous? Why has this home become the subject of a curse where greed and jealousy mingle? We are a few kilometers from Périgueux, in the middle of the Barade forest. Obviously, all these murders, all these crimes, there's a lot going on. But ultimately, that’s what makes the place strong. The Château de l’Herm Between magic and fear, the castle of L'herm leaves no one indifferent. I meet people who tell me they feel terrible waves. When I say I'm going to the Château de l'Herm, they tell me what a horror. There is a contrast between the darkness of the human soul and the beauty of the place. It’s a place that is magical and the people are sensitive. It was in the 17th century that everything was at stake. A forced marriage to an upstart may be the cause of a bloody war between two families. The consequence, not only of the murders, but I would even say of the embezzlement, it is a story of family rapacity, led to the ruin of the castle. Was the first murder the cause of everything? Or is it the castle that exercises evil power over its occupants or suitors? What are the real issues brewing around this building? To better understand the mystery of this murderous madness which has befallen these places, we must go back to the time of its construction. Jean de Calvimont, a rich notable from Bordeaux, has just gained access to the nobility by acquiring the lordship of the herm. He then sets out with his son to build a castle worthy of their new rank. He has made a meteoric rise. He possessed extraordinary wealth for the time. By having financed the marriage of the daughter of the Count of Périgord, he finally achieved this status so envied by the nobility. He has the financial means to realize his dream which is a castle that is out of the ordinary in Périgord. In just 20 years, they will build a castle worthy of their ambitions, but they pay no attention to a superstition which recommends not building on the remains of a castle. They do as they please and will build one of the most beautiful castles in Dordogne on the ruins. The herm is characterized by remarkable architectural elements , in particular the spiral staircase which measures 5 meters in diameter with a twisted central core. It is the unique example of the Périgord empire and ends with a sheaf or palm tree of worked stones with main ribs and secondary ribs. The Calvimonts flaunt their wealth shamelessly. They flaunt with ostentatiousness. The building is then compared to the Château de la Loire. Very quickly, they arouse jealousy and lust. Fireplaces occupy the entire depth of a wall, an entire panel of a depth, which is also relatively rare. They are emblazoned with the Calvimont coat of arms. And then, the front door and the porch with the six steps show the splendor of this family. Do the Calvimonts know that this arrogance, this desire to appear, this desire to be unique, will be at the origin of the tragic disappearance of their great-granddaughter? He puts himself above average and the family will have a tragic fate. They got as high as they got as low, ultimately. It is therefore with Marguerite, the great-granddaughter of the builder, that this family rise will suddenly stop. The only direct heir of Jean de Calvimont, she found herself at the head of an immense fortune at a very young age and this was not going to bring her luck. On Marguerite's head was already written a not easy destiny. Marguerite's father is dead. His mother, Anne d'Abzac, remarried a person called Foucault d'Aubusson, who himself brought his son called François and who was destined for little Marguerite les accordailles, as they said. So these are done. Marguerite was four years old at that time. These agreements stipulate the terms of an arranged marriage which will seal the destiny of the young girl. Her husband, young François, has only one obsession: to shine as much as his wealthy wife, the Lady of Herm. To become a lord, he must also own land. He therefore naturally borrows from his wife. He is a character that we know quite well thanks to the documents he bought, many goods that he could not finance. Immature and stubborn, François wants to establish his rank and his authority. By accumulating debts with his wife, he will find his back against the walls. He was a fairly pretentious character, even very pretentious, who had decided to buy the lordship of Roffignac, that is to say the parish next door, that is to say something important. And he had signed an acknowledgment of debt to his wife to make this purchase. Faced with this difficult situation, he finds a macabre solution. To make his wife disappear was to make the debt disappear. A disastrous project, but is it really François' idea? Would his mistress, Marie de Hautefort, not have thought of it first? Nobody knows it, but the shadow of death already hangs over Marguerite's frail shoulders. In 1605, he decided to take her prisoner, which was something quite classic, if we can say so at the time. And she was locked in the little room which is in the tower, at the very back. She was locked up there for three days. And on the third day, she was strangled by the henchmen of her husband, François d'Aubusson. François becomes the master. He seizes his wife's property, starting of course with the castle. The Calvimonts do not intend to let this happen and it is by summoning justice that they will try to take revenge. But revenge for what? The tragic death of their relatives or the theft of this precious castle? There were trials in Bordeaux, Toulouse, Paris, etc. And finally, François d'Aubusson was condemned to death. He and his accomplices were condemned to have all four limbs cut off and their heads too. The Calvimonts barely have time to celebrate the victory before François escapes from prison. Under the noses of the authorities, he manages to regain his Herm fever. He continues his life as if nothing had happened and naturally marries his mistress. François d'Aubusson remarried the year after the murder. He married a representative of the old local aristocracy. Marie de Hautefort was a woman with an incredibly strong, almost demented character. Reputedly Machiavellian, this aristocrat was not the last to want to humiliate upstarts. Could she have influenced François and pushed him to get rid of his wife? In any case, nothing stopped them from settling in the castle and taunting royal justice for more than ten years. After several years, François d'Aubusson wanted to ask for a royal pardon. For this it was necessary, it was the law, to become a prisoner. He was a prisoner in the châtelet in Paris. He suffered the question, heard the torture and died about twenty days later. Destiny finally caught up with François. For justice, the Château de l'Herm still belongs to the Calvimont family. But Marie has no intention of leaving the place. She will stop at nothing to keep this very ill-gotten asset. She did the best she could in her time to keep her rank. She fought with her tools to the point of murder, let's be clear. Marie seems to have a goal, an obscure mission. Is she the armed arm of the curse? She physically eliminated enemies. That is to say, she waited with members of her family for an ambush in which two members of Calvimont's family were killed. The ambushes, in the forest, Arquebusades, to eliminate all these beneficiaries, Calvimont, who never stop claiming their inheritance on the place. In all, around ten murders took place between the 1630s and 1650s. The Calvimonts in turn entered into this macabre game. They murder Marie's second husband and son. Would this attraction to the castle drive everyone who comes near it crazy? These murders are linked to the needs or the desire to own this castle. When we say “this castle”, it is this castle, this land, since there was still a significant area with agricultural land income and legal rights. Of all the inhabitants of the castle, Marie will certainly be the most sensitive to the evil spell that the building can exert. She maintains a passionate and all-consuming relationship with this magnificent residence. I have a certain admiration for this woman who fought against all odds to be able to keep this place that she loved, in the end, since otherwise, she would have sold it, she would have left. One might wonder if it was not the castle itself that ended up possessing Marie. Was the manipulator bewitched by an obsession stronger than herself? Marie finally died in 1650, but the clan war continued for two generations. At that time, the Calvilonts really pulled out all the stops, so to speak, and the courts ordered an auction. The castle was sold at auction. It was at that time that a niece of Marie d'Hautefort who was a very great lady, who was also called Marie, Marie d'Hautefort, who had been the platonic mistress of Louis XIII and who was called Aurore, bought the castle. The Hauteforts finally won their case. The castle, no longer representing any stake in power and definitively abandoned by the family who sold it in the 19th century. If the history of Herm had been linear like in other castles, with successive lords and furniture, we would have a castle like other castles, that is to say banal. Even in ruins, the Herm still wields a certain power today, a mixture of curiosity and repulsion. The perception of these misdeeds, of this crime, of the series of crimes means that certain People feel very negative vibes, it seems, here. There are enough elements in the castle itself, the floor levels, the chimneys, the corbels which supported the beams for people to form their imagination. His ghostly carcass and tortured story inspired Eugène Le Roy to write Jacquou le Croquant, one of the darkest and most popular novels of the 19th century. We are in a situation where reality, even in a minimal way, was the little seed that gave birth to a legend. Whether it snatches the lives of its inhabitants or gives birth to a fiction that sends shivers, the curse of Herm spreads far beyond the forest of Barade. An Aire Inter plane crashed in the Forez mountains. The plane circled for several minutes before crashing to the ground. The Burle triangle This small tourist plane crashed yesterday morning on Mont Alambre. The plane is the safest way to travel. Maybe, but not in this region of the Cévennes. Often compared to the Bermuda Triangle, this part of land arouses incomprehension and fantasy. We are in the mysterious Burle triangle. What is completely atypical in the region is the accumulation of crashes and brings us back to three zones globally. The Burle triangle, the Bermuda triangle, which is the triangle, let's say, the most well-known in the media, and also a triangle which is located in the Sea of ​​Japan. Less known, the Burle is nevertheless just as formidable, if not more. In 90 years, there have been approximately 72 plane crashes, which is approximately one plane crash per year. 72, as much if not more than in the Bermuda Triangle. A disastrous comparison to which are added unexplained phenomena and mysterious disappearances. So, how many secrets does the Burle triangle still hide from us? This feared area owes its name to the burle, a violent and unpredictable wind capable of blowing in all seasons. It's a very harsh wind that swirls and creates very heavy snowdrifts in a very short time. It is a wind that is very feared by people on the plateaus above Puy-en-Velay. But clearly, the music of this bad wind is not the only thing to fear in the region. It was very nice. There was a very clear sky, there were no burles, there was no snowstorm. At one point we were following the ballet of several military planes which were flying back and forth in a somewhat abnormal, somewhat rapid manner. The year is 1964. NATO fighter planes are going on exercise. Unfortunately, their route crosses the enigmatic Ardèchois triangle. All the inhabitants of the region watch them pass because they pass very low. And two collide above the Mézenc. For the witnesses, it was astonishment. After the violence of the impact, death lurks. I discovered the second pilot very close to the road which goes down to Chaudeyrolles, at the side of the road, strapped to his seat and half buried in the ground. That day, flying conditions were good. Sun, little wind, great visibility. The accident becomes inexplicable. How could elite pilots collide? We did not understand why this crash happened there. This is one of the notable crashes in the Burle Triangle, because there were many witnesses. I think it was a pilot error, inevitably. Fatality, conspiracies, everything is considered, including dark forces. Because this spectacular accident is added to an incredible list of unexplained tragedies from 1928 until today. One of them has a very particular resonance. There was the crash in 1948 of the plane of Kathleen Cavendish Kennedy, JFK's sister. They were going to the South of France, to Nice, for a vacation and their small plane crashed in Saint-Beauzire, which highlighted the start of this famous Kennedy curse. A disturbing fact, following six other brutal disappearances in the famous family. Personality in step, the list of victims will inexorably grow. Crashes will increase. On January 21, 1971, a plane left Paris and took 21 personalities, civilians and military, to the nuclear level. The plane flies over the Burle triangle and crashes at the Col de Mézilhac in the middle of winter, with a meter of snow. The complete disaster. The French atomic staff is decapitated. An atmosphere of secrecy surrounds the crash area. Witnesses and journalists are kept away. State security is at stake. We are looking for top secret documents. The police and the army came. We created a perimeter for several days which completely blocked all the inhabitants of the small villages who were in this area to search for these famous documents, search for bodies, parts of the plane, etc. Which completely left its mark, in fact, on the inhabitants of this area of ​​the Burle triangle. No survivors among the 21 people on board. The nuclear deterrent program is then put in jeopardy and those in the middle of the Cold War. The mystery thickens around this cursed triangle and the repeated spitting fuels the rumor. The following year, the instruments of an airliner malfunctioned for obscure reasons. They disappear from radar screens. Sixty people will die. It is the deadliest accident in the area. What do you think happened? I told myself the device is not working normally. It's not running normally, there's something wrong. Despite attempts at explanation, what is most surprising in this endless succession of tragedies is the rather restricted area where the accidents take place. We are about 30 kilometers from one of the points which is Mont Pilat, which is behind, quite there, behind the mountains. The other point is the Mézenc, but today it is covered by mist, it's not possible to see. And the third point is behind us, it is the Puy basin which is about twenty kilometers away. As dangerous as the Bermuda Triangle, the Burle Triangle is 1000 times smaller. In terms of the aerial flight, it is true that it is small in terms of the passage of a plane. Large or small, it is also in this area that two planes in distress are said to have completely disappeared, without anything or anyone ever being able to be recovered. We have two truly astonishing crashes which really reveal the whole mystery of the Burle triangle, what we call the nothing crashes. Testimonies from different people who do not know each other converge to establish disturbing and truly surprising facts. A plane crashed in 1980 and many witnesses saw a plane with a red and white tail on fire crash into the woods of Mont de Mézenc. There was a column of smoke for several hours in the middle of the forest. They took a very long time to arrive at the scene and when they arrived at the scene, there was nothing. Nothing was found, neither plane debris, nor even traces of impact on the ground. Could these be collective hallucinations , pure and simple inventions? Hard to believe, especially since the episode repeats itself. The same thing happened again the following year. Lots of people saw the same plane with a red and white tail that was not working properly, which had engines that were not working properly and which crashed towards Mont Mézenc. 35 years later, these phantom crashes remain a mystery. No planes have been reported missing. So, what did the witnesses actually see fall? Where was the column of smoke coming from that they all noticed? What really happened during these nothing crashes? And why did they take place in this area? You should know that at the global level, there are 27 spits of nothing recorded throughout the world, including two in the Burle Triangle, which is still enormous too and which is of great interest to ufologists and mystery lovers. . And we understand them. According to witnesses on the ground, the spits are often accompanied by intense luminous trails resembling fireballs or pale spheres of light. There are many testimonies from people who have seen this kind of phenomenon, for example, following fairly large plane crashes, the planes were surrounded by these famous spheres. So, there have been testimonies from people on the ground who saw light phenomena around certain crashes. Many theories have been put forward to try to explain these strange phenomena. Whether the most rational or the most esoteric, none of them succeeds in dispelling the mystery. We are in a conflict zone of air masses coming from the South and coming from the North. And when these air masses meet, it creates turbulence which can hamper piloting. And those who are not used to this region may be confused if they venture there in unfavorable weather conditions. The famous Cévennes episodes that we encounter in the region, these torrential rains and these sudden storms which can be a part, which can explain certain crashes. The explanation is unsatisfactory if we take into account the experience of the pilots and it does not resolve the technical enigmas. There are also the effects, for example, of uranium mines which can jam devices. And then, there are the theories of magnetism, the magnetism of volcanoes, which can also be one of the theories since it can possibly jam certain devices, military devices that fly low, etc. So the legend takes its source from the heart of extinct volcanoes? No certainty. All scientific theories cannot, for example, explain phenomena like these famous spheres that follow planes or crashes of nothing. We then turn to more esoteric explanations. There are also magnetic effects on the slightly more esoteric side, the magnetism of megaliths, since you should know that it is the second region after Brittany where there are the most megaliths. Could the curse be linked to the dark influence of an ancient civilization? Some have mentioned telluric phenomena, magnetic phenomena. It's a bit part of a legend, of a myth that exists. Now, that remains to be verified. If dark forces linked to evil presences have been mentioned, a very curious legend is put forward to try to unravel the mystery of this curse. The golden table is a legend that dates back to ancient times. Druids from Puy-en-Velay are said to have pillaged the temple of Delphi to bring back the golden hand of Apollo. They cast this famous hand to make what was called the golden table and which served them as a bit of an altar. And when this golden table was in the center of Puy, strange phenomena happened in the city. Objects have moved. The soldiers had enormous, very terrible headaches. Although ill-gotten, this table would crystallize the anger of the gods. It would therefore have been necessary to get rid of it quickly. The people of Puy asked the druids to bury this golden table in the middle of the Devil's Teeth. The Devil's Teeth being the two rocks located at the foot of Mont Mézenc. The table obviously remains nowhere to be found. So, would the druids have taken this heavy secret with them? In any case, it is said that ancient gods would still watch, as if the triangle were on the border of an unknown world. The aerial spats occurred more on the outskirts of the triangle and not inside, which could perhaps conceal a force which would prevent planes from crashing in this famous zone. The more we search, the more the mystery thickens and the curse of the Burle triangle remains as mysterious as ever. And as long as planes fly over the region, this little piece of land will continue to bear its sinister nickname, the triangle of death. When I come to the region, I only travel by car. I have never flown over the Burle triangle by plane and I think I probably never will. Staying the course is never easy, especially when the curse strikes blind. A few kilometers from Poitiers, the curse rubs shoulders with the devil and spreads The parish of Laudun throughout a seemingly calm and uneventful city. In the 17th century, Loudun was the scene of incredible events. It is said that we see devils flying in the streets, that we see girls rising on the pinnacles of churches. Madness has completely taken over the city. Diabolical possessions and witchcraft are discussed, involving nuns and the parish priest Urbain Grandier. But why would a priest engage in such acts condemned by the Church? Everything was messed up from A to Z. There are all the ingredients of an exceptional news story, with the downright pornographic side of the exorcism sessions, and then with this terrible end of this unfortunate priest who was accused of to have owned the Ursulines. The medieval buildings still standing clearly show that at the end of the 16th century, Loudun was prosperous and there was nothing to suggest that this flourishing and well-protected town would sink into chaos and dementia. It was a town of officers, it was a town of soldiers, it was an extremely important citadel. And the entire Loudun hillside had been transformed into a fortress reputed to be impregnable in the 13th century by Philippe Auguste. In a time of weakening, reading the Protestant rebellion, Louis XIII will unknowingly set up a context conducive to what will ever mark the destiny of the city. After the siege of La Rochelle, Louis XIII, who had spared Loudun who had been very loyal to him until then, decided that these fortifications had to be destroyed. From now on, the people of Loudan feel vulnerable. Doubt and suspicion set in, creating all the conditions for intervention. One of the most incredible stories of the time. In 1632, a plague epidemic ravaged the city. The residents, girls from good families for the most part, then left the Ursuline convent and with them, the main financial resource disappeared. The good sisters will therefore remain alone, recluse and hungry. This means that they are starting to be in a state of destitution which is starting to be worrying. These are people who suffered a lot because at the time, it was not a choice to be a good sister, I would even say in 90% of cases. Few have actually had the true calling and said to themselves , “I actually give 100% to my spiritual function.” left behind, abandoned single mothers, fragile beings are the majority of these sisters who still live in the convent. So, when some of them begin to convulse or blaspheme, the convent's confessor is urgently called to understand this strange epidemic. At that time, signs were effectively described by certain sensations, by certain words, by certain desires, by certain ways of behaving, to the point of becoming obscene. His diagnosis is then final. The sisters are possessed by devils. Possession in itself is something very rare. This so-called possession is not possession. We are no longer in the realm of obsession, fascination. Disquiet and turmoil spread to the city. Demonic possession or not, the accused is designated by the mother superior of the convent. Very, very quickly, the name of Urbain Grandier was pronounced as being the devil's messenger. And this idea will only grow in people's minds. However, Urbain Grandier, priest of the main parish of Loudun, the Saint-Pierre-du-Marché church, quickly established himself among the city's notables. He arrived very young. He was a brilliant priest, with good theological knowledge and a great talent as an orator. And very quickly, parishioners influenced his church and he experienced great success. It is also a church which has been marked by a number of scandals. Handsome man, Urbain Grandier, is a priest with a sulphurous reputation, an insatiable seducer. He is credited with many gallant adventures. This was the behavior of many parish priests, many priests in the previous century, but the counter-reform passed through this. There she demands morality from her clergy and he is the complete opposite of that. He leads a life that can no longer be accepted in the 1620s, whereas it would undoubtedly have been 50 years earlier. Rumors are rife, but the man handles provocation with delight. Going against the grain of his hierarchy, he even wrote a treatise against the celibacy of priests. He carries with him an absolutely scandalous reputation. He's made a lot of enemies, so a lot of people want him gone. But it also makes you fantasize a lot. Jealous by husbands, hated by his peers, this story of possession comes at the right time for his detractors. It actually seems that the story of Urbain Grandier and that of the nuns are two different stories that come together. The possession will be useful to get rid of a cumbersome priest. At the time, to get rid of someone, you had to accuse them of witchcraft. This is the simplest, shortest way to achieve your goals. However, the priest never officially met the sisters. Would his reputation be enough to trigger the phenomena of possession? I think that Mr. Urbain Grandier, being a handsome man, knowing how to speak to women, must have had very great sexual energy which, at a given moment, must have influenced from an energetic point of view these sisters who were actually in penalty. If Urbain Grandier appeals to women, the fact remains that his power of seduction cannot be responsible for the curse that falls on the convent. We must therefore look elsewhere. The explanation of the priests of the time is simple, they are possessed by devils, not only by the devil, but by a whole series of devils. And it is they who are responsible for all their misconduct. Could this possession be the effect of an evil will? The hierarchical superiors of Mr. Urbain Grandier, at one point, must have had an affair with a local wizard who simply came tenfold by calling entities into their act of witchcraft. And then you do what you want with these people. And actually see people go wild, speak in Latin, shout or whatever, even in the public square. A jewel of Romanesque architecture, the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross was built in the 11th century, and it is there, in the heart of the city, that the exorcist priests will try to save the bewitched nuns. Today, the atmosphere of the place remains special, as if in the nave and the walls of the building still resonated the rotating shows of the time. We know the atmosphere of these sessions well because they were recounted by contemporaries and it is truly a great spectacle. It's the big spectacle behind me, in the choir, where the exorcisms take place and where the nuns are confronted by their exorcists. The nuns, therefore, were described to us as taking obscene positions, as uttering crude words. They insult their exorcists who mistreat them. They insult the spectators. And obviously, it attracts a considerable crowd. So, you have to imagine this nave absolutely full, with skeptics who challenge the devils, who challenge the exorcists. We must not imagine something solemn, something sad, something calm. It's a perpetual movement. The city is divided. We speak of collective hysteria or possession, where others denounce the masquerade. In reality, it is above all a prosecution against Urbains Grandier. We have the example of two young nuns. They manage to escape and they say “But that’s not true, we were forced to say that.” we get our hands on it again and we explain to them that their behavior is guided by the devil. The authorities are pressing the exorcists. At all costs, material proof will be required to accuse the rebellious priest. There are still great moments. There are moments when pacts appear, notably the one signed between Urbain Grandier and the devil, where Urbain Grandier promises to serve the devil. In 1634, the sentence fell. The man of the church is condemned to the stake. Until the end, he refuses to admit that he is a sorcerer. Until the end, he proclaims that he is innocent and that he surrenders his soul to God and that he hopes that God will receive him in paradise. Grandier's death did not free the sisters from their madness and the exorcisms continued until 1637. Today, the Ursuline convent no longer exists and yet the rumor still circulates. Throughout the centuries, it still captivates and terrorizes, as if to remind us of this diabolical possession. And the curse does not choose its time to strike. In the 12th century, bad luck attacked an entire village and transformed it into a desert of stones. Closer to us, in the 19th century, a love story turns into a nightmare and it is a temple of lyrical art which wavers in superstition and repeated tragedies. So, let's follow our journey to the heart of cursed France. Heading to the banks of the Vienne, a neo-Gothic building has many attractions The castle of Fougeret for its visitors, but Fougeret arouses all kinds of curiosities. Indeed, voice and entity have been held in the castle for a long time. Ghosts or not, the very special atmosphere of this place is felt as soon as you enter the park. I was completely captivated by Fougeret. I think and I have always thought in relation to history, that Fougeret chooses his successors, his owners, his possessors. As a confirmed historian, Véronique is far from imaginary and the strength of the links that she will weave with this castle, left abandoned by the previous owners. I find myself in the park which looked like a mikado of trees. I couldn't even step over, etc. I could see that at the end, there was something interesting because we could see the points, but I really had difficulty approaching it, getting acquainted. However, the magic of the place operates and Véronique immediately feels attracted by the unique history of this castle. When I got there, I said to myself, “Finally, this is great.” It was something that had lived, that was old. I felt this medieval aspect, but at the same time, something that had been considerably altered, redecorated. Véronique and her husband François cannot remain indifferent to this building. And yet, they do not yet know to what extent their own history and those of this place can intertwine. I came out of the castle, I was with François and I said to him “But it’s crazy!” and François said to me “I don’t know, but there’s going to be a story there. And this story begins very quickly after their installation. The couple first hears footsteps and furniture being moved, but they remain skeptical. And then, there is that famous evening when Véronique, going down the stairs, sees a cloud of smoke slip by. For her, there is no doubt, it is a male silhouette that slips between the two living rooms on the ground floor. The first step is to try to understand and find out if it was objectively demonstrable to others. Because things that we feel, it’s complicated to say “I saw that, I heard that”, etc. Véronique therefore calls on specialists to share her sensations and discoveries. Armed with their measuring tools, these investigators of the strange will identify phenomena which undoubtedly reflect the presence of entities. We heard a lot of whispers, we heard a lot of footsteps. We've been through quite a bit, actually. In this castle, we had a PVE and in particular of a little girl who died a long time ago in this castle and who has a room which was her bedroom. Who is this little girl? Is it possible to get in touch with her? I asked him “Are you there?” Are you with us?” She replied, “Come.” As for her name, she won't give it. The mystery remains. I admit that we still had a little scare at that moment. In Fougeret, there is no shortage of PVEs and electronic vocal phenomena. Would the castle be inhabited? who are you ? Presence of entities or not, everyone will have their own idea. It proves to us, if you like, that we really have these voices, since we record them, that we really have “not normal” things happening. Despite everything, Véronique wants to keep a cool head. The entities do not frighten him and his interest in the castle's past continues to grow. What fascinates me is the experience he may have had. It's more the historian who vibrates because I find that places like that, which really have experience, which have been inhabited for several centuries, there are inevitably imprints, something that remains. And this memory of walls has always fascinated me, on the other hand. But I've never used the word "paranormal" before. However, the castle is reputed to be haunted and that is surely what makes it so special. For specialists and fans of the strange, Fougeret would indeed be a place populated by multiple entities. I call them the people of Fougeret, all these people who lived there before, who make a kind of egregore of energy somewhere, as if all these people who were still there still have somewhere moods, no pun intended. The ghosts have therefore invaded Fougeret. But why are they there? Where do they come from ? And why are there so many of them? I think that in places, if there remains an energy, if there remains a strong memory of places, there is a departure. It doesn't happen like that. Thanks to the archives, Véronique has traced what she thinks is the origin of the curse. We are at the beginning of the 15th century and one of the owners of the time is not unanimous. I came across a character, Floridas, who is still a very surprising character, who was totally ousted, put under guardianship by his brother, etc. Worse still, Floridas was allegedly killed on the crypt stairs by his own brother. And then I have Floridas son, who is surprisingly called, like us, Geffroy, who was disinherited. It always really touched me, this man who I still felt was angry, sad to have been disinherited, disowned, who really lived in the struggle to recover this family heirloom and what we ultimately owed him. Since then, the ghost of Floridas has haunted the place as if to find the castle that was stolen from him. His story is there, it resembles ours, my husband’s. And seeing my husband in the same distress, with the same name, I said to myself “If there is anything to understand, it is from this family.” It's not possible otherwise. Is history just repetition? Other significant events, wars of succession, trials, family ruins, even violent death, are all tragedies which will lead to the installation of new souls in the different rooms of the castle. We have phenomena, I would say, attributed to pieces, since in fact, it is completely linked to events which repeat themselves. It's not just phenomena, I think there's something else behind it. And there is no shortage of examples. In the knight's room, a presence seems to be watching over the destiny of the castle. I really like this room because we had contact with an entity who said he was a soldier, who spoke to us a lot about religion, but who was very sad because he no longer recognized his castle as it was. he was today. Here, we regularly hear footsteps like someone keeping watch. In the old Chemin de Ronde, we hear footsteps like that. In the grandmother's room, the atmosphere is totally different. We have someone who was already part of the domestic service in Fougeret, who looked after the children when there were a lot of children, during the holidays, etc. And she still watches over the people who come to sleep there. So, we have hair caresses. The feeling also of someone sitting at the foot of the bed or the sound of little footsteps or tidying up the desk. We have noises of life like that, but it's really benevolent, that's clear. In 1920, the curse struck again. This time she focuses on Alice Robain, a young woman who likes to have fun and lives the Roaring Twenties to the fullest. She was only 23 when she died of a kidney complication, just a few months after her marriage. The room that touched us the most was really Alice's bedroom. My eldest daughter, by working a day with me in this room, by staying for a very short time in this room, catching the same disease that Alice is taking over. So in 1924, my daughter was the same age at the time. It completely shocked me because when I saw it, I told François that I didn't want to hear more about Fougeret. Wouldn’t the people of Fougeraille be all benevolent? We can actually ask ourselves the question, aside from that, is there ultimately an entity that would not agree with our presence in the castle? It is perhaps more of a warning, perhaps, to tell us “You are in my room, you are in my place. I just don’t want you to be here.” And if there was still any doubt about the curse that hangs over Fougeret, Véronique finds in the archives a macabre repetition through the ages. A clear observation. Almost all owners, all generations have experienced the death of someone young. Child, wife, husband, very close, someone really very close. Which means that the atmosphere becomes deleterious and the whole family falls apart and there is nothing left. Also victims of these tragic events, Véronique and her husband want believing despite everything that Fougeret's curse can dissipate. If so, I hope we will complete this cycle. Somewhere, we are going to break this repetitive side, like that, historical, because we have perhaps understood and by understanding, we pay them a little homage somewhere. In the meantime, the ghosts of Fougeret are there and continue to haunt the place. Both magical and terrifying in its green setting, Fougeret keeps the secrets of this curse which struck many families and has continued from the 15th century to the present day. Rocca Sparviera The curse can take very diverse forms. In the hinterland of Nice, revenge is the origin of a mysterious legend. Rocca Sparviera became a ghost village under very strange circumstances. It is a setting that is always a setting of complaint. One might wonder what could have happened to get to this point. Earthquakes, epidemics and many other dramatic phenomena hit the village. This accumulation that I found about Rocca Sparviera, I have never found it anywhere else. It is indeed this accumulation which makes the history of this suspended village so strange, as if fate had fought over the centuries. To get there, you have to take the Var valley from Nice, then reach the white waters of the Vésubie. Before even starting the final ascent which leads to Rocca Sparviera, the steep wall of the Saut des Français imposes its disastrous history. It was a jump where the Barbets, the Chouans of the Pays Nice, made their prisoners jump into the Vésubie, 200 meters below. There are some. And that was the way to get rid of it. They would have done much worse. Legend has it that as a last meal, they forced the prisoners to eat the hearts of their officers. Why make them eat their hearts? There was a form of anthropophagy that we find to some extent in the same story, that of the legend of Queen Joan. In these tragic stories, we always arrive at an anthropophagic context which is nevertheless disturbing, because I have never found that elsewhere. Disturbing, indeed. Would the Barbets have wanted to pay a sinister homage to this popular legend? Or could their bloodthirsty madness have been inspired by a sneaky curse lurking in the mists of the Ghost Hamlet? In the morning, you have a characteristic mist and this mist already predisposes to the imagination. We are in a village that feels like a “ghost village”. When we arrive almost naturally, no one speaks anymore. When I take people for a walk, I notice that they have a contemplative reaction. These ruins stand and resist as much as if they were still inhabited. But by whom? By what ? These ruins have something alive. When we went to visit the ruins, we had the impression that there was a presence in these ruins. What presence and why? Before the curse, Rocca Sparviera took advantage of its dominant position on the Col Saint-Michel. There, we are in the lower part of the village. From the windows, we can see that there are large precipices, large voids. When I arrive in the village, I always wonder what life could have been like with all these people. I told myself that indeed, they must have been working the land, of course. We are not certain about the location of the castle in particular, but we can imagine it actually at the top of the village, at the very highest point. The maze of ruins gives a glimpse of what life was like in the 14th century. Rocca Sparviera was then a flourishing village. It was a village which had a notary, a lord, of course, a priest and which had, let's say, all the possible social links. There was the communal oven, there was the mill. In the valley, we knew Rocca Sparviera in Nice, we knew Rocca Sparviera. So, Rocca Sparviera, a prosperous village which, suddenly, completely disappears. The disastrous destiny of the village is inseparable from the drama that a sovereign then at the head of Provence will experience . Nothing predestined Queen Joan of Naples to the terrible events which would follow her arrival at Rocca Sparviera. Queen Jeanne is a queen who is made of pain and passion. She was known, let's say, for a fierce will. She was also renowned for her kindness, because in Provence, they liked her. And there, it is associated with something terrible. The destiny of Queen Jeanne will then change and suddenly merge with that of this hilltop village nicknamed La Roche de l'Épervier. Queen Jeanne arrives in the village and takes over the castle, because she is being pursued. She is pursued by her in-laws who suspect her of having murdered her husband. She arrives with her two children. She also arrives with the priest following her and then some guards. And she settles in the village. But on this Christmas Eve, the priest cannot do his office in the castle chapel. The queen will therefore go to midnight mass in Coaraze, a village below the mountain. Along the way, the cries of crows seem to deliver a prophetic message. We heard a premonitory phrase, a terrible premonitory phrase. “When the queen returns from mass, she will find the table set.” that is to say, when she returns from church, she will find the table set. The table is set, yes, but in a very cruel way. Arriving up there, she found her children served on the Christmas dinner menu. The tutor had been, let's say, drunk, he was dead drunk. The nanny had also been murdered. Drunk with rage, the queen leaves the castle with only one idea in mind, to destroy everything that can remind her of this nightmarish Christmas. She then casts a spell that will fall on the village for centuries. When she leaves, let's say, her castle after the tragedy she experienced, the next morning, she says "Rock red with blood, malignant rock on your site, on your summit, a day will come when neither the hen will sing anymore nor the rooster.” From this moment on, the history of the village will be marked by numerous episodes as tragic as they are devastating. Shortly after Queen Joan passed by, a flight of locusts from Africa wiped out the entire crop. Two centuries later, when the curse seems to have receded, the plague wiped out half the population, striking four times in less than 50 years. And that's not all. It's the earth that's shaking. Repeated earthquakes. There were five, I mean five earthquakes which were terrible, to the point that discouraged people began to leave the village. Successive earthquakes dried up the springs, to the point that the village was finally deserted. Is Queen Joan's curse the only cause? The legend has the advantage of explaining a sort of spell which makes this sector, this village, a place where life no longer exists. If life has disappeared in Rocca Sparviera, the mystery remains. The curse has taken place in this village and seems to cling to the remains of the buildings of yesteryear. What may raise questions is why these ruins are still present, say, after four centuries. There were four centuries of presence and four centuries where everything was abandoned, where everything disappeared. But then, why did so many walls remain standing? The first one that I personally want to believe in, it’s architectural quality and construction quality. But in any case nothing prevents us from imagining that Queen Joan is still there, with a hand placed on the ruins in order to keep them, in order to keep the curse, to make us think. Queen Joan and her curse still arouse curiosity and attract hikers to the trails of the Nice hinterland. In everyone's mind, Rocca Sparviera is not dead. The Rock of the Épervier still exists and will last for a long time. The curse can also be found in the heart of the city, or even in the capital. The Garnier opera It could even be hidden under the flamboyant gold of a facade known to the whole world. The Garnier opera also has its share of light and shadow. When you enter the Palais Garnier, you are completely immersed, penetrated by this 19th century atmosphere. In this temple of art where everything is glitter and false pretenses, superstition takes precedence over rationality. Imagination over reality. The line between the real and the unreal is really very thin here. I think we can only see this feeling here. But here, it's because there is something else palpable. From there to knowing that there is a ghost behind it, it is not miles. Here we are. The places are said to be haunted since the very beginning of the work. In any case, the ghost is present in the minds of all those who enter the palace or walk behind the scenes. There is always this little ulterior motive when you arrive on the evening of the performance, that you go into the corridors, that it is just before the performance. But the legend of the Phantom of the Opera is not just an ephemeral emotion. On the contrary, it gives full meaning to a succession of diverse, strange and often little-known facts. We can say that the specter of the curse hangs over this institution. It all began in 1861 with the start of work. For 15 years, the architect Charles Garnier encountered extreme difficulties in finalizing the project and satisfying the request of Napoleon III. Is he building the 13th performance hall in the capital? A fateful figure which will largely influence the history of this place. The number 13 is truly a cursed number at the Paris Opera, whether for box number 13 which does not exist, or for chair number 13 in the fourth box which received the counterweight from the chandelier that famous evening spectacle. Obviously, the chair was occupied and the spectator died instantly. But the danger is also present outside the room. The 13th step of the grand staircase on which "a little rat" fell from the glass roof. Here again, the accident is fatal for this young dancer. The number 13 is banned from the palace grounds. And yet, other suspicious deaths will mourn the history of opera. A machinist dies in very curious circumstances. The rope, which left marks on his neck, will never be found. Strangled or hanged, murder or suicide, the mystery will never be solved. Since then, no one says the word “rope” on set. So, at the Opera, we are superstitious and we don't hide it. People here pay special attention to many things. You go down the grand staircase, you touch the feet of the caryatids on the garden side. You pass on the set, you look if you are not dressed in green. You are in this atmosphere all the time and in this kind of palpable fog of superstition. But what explains the curse goes far beyond superstition. Indeed, shortly before the inauguration, it was a very real tragedy which will undoubtedly be at the origin of the legend of the Phantom of the Opera. The Conservatory of rue Le peletier, which is the ancestor of the Palais Garnier, burned in 1873. October 28 to be precise. In this fire a young ballerina dies with whom a young pianist, Ernest, was hopelessly in love, who will be completely disfigured. Fleeing attention, he feels rejected and takes refuge in the basement of the building still under construction. It is unknown how long he remained in hiding and whether he even survived the burns. Since then, he has continued to haunt the place in the guise of the famous ghost, mourning his beloved and composing an endless ode to her. Many people think they have seen him or even heard him playing the organ in the basement of the palace. If its existence can make you smile, the influence of the ghost on the Opera is very real. This ghost is completely part of the history of the Opera. He is completely attached to the buildings and to lodge number 5. The ghost would therefore have taken up his habits in this lodge. And today, it attracts everyone's attention and makes visitors fantasize. Many people want box number 5 in the first Garden box. This is the Phantom's lodge. It is also a journey in itself, a destination in itself. Not only are you coming to a show at the Paris Opera, but you are also coming to the Palais Garnier and what's more, you are going to box number 5. The box does not de-amplify. Perhaps the secret of hope of meeting the ghost. You have a lot more thrills when you are in that box, in my opinion, because you are completely above the conductor, above the orchestra. You are very, very close to the stage. You are right next to the emperor's box and it is a box which, even if it is a little off-center on the garden side, you allow yourself to have a total vision of the entire room, the stage, ceiling, chandelier and sets. It's not just box number 5 that makes you fantasize. The lake designed by Charles Garnier is a place that has fueled the wildest rumors. Invisible to the general public, he contributes to the spell that the Opera arouses. When Garnier built the Opera, he came across a water table and so he pumped, hoping to dry the water table. Except that this water table will never dry, since they are resurgences of the Seine. And he has the brilliant idea of ​​digging a casing under the Seine cage, making it possible to balance the three buildings which are the administration, the stage cage and the performance hall, so as to have approximately equivalent weights, so that there is no differential settlement between the three buildings. An ingenious technical device which weights the building and stabilizes it, the heart of the palace in a way. And it is precisely here that the ghost would have found refuge. We are six levels below the performance stage and therefore it is the famous lake under the Opera. It's not a legend at all, it's a reality. It is an immense casing which takes up the entire surface area of ​​the plateau. This lake is at the heart of the legend. It largely inspired Gaston Leroux's successful novel , as did The Pianist in Love, Le Chiffre 13 and the numerous incidents which punctuated the life of the Opera. This famous curse, if it originated somewhere, in my opinion, it would be there. In 1907, workers dug the basement of the Palace and dug up a corpse. Is it that of the young pianist? No one knows, but it is undoubtedly the tormented soul of this unfortunate man who will forever haunt the halls of the Opera. You might think about it when you set foot on the 13th step of the Grand Staircase. Murders, entities, unexplained disappearances and paranormal phenomena have marked the history of these magnificent and captivating places. They have often influenced the course of history. So, remember when you cross these porches or push one of these doors, that behind appearances there may be a dark spirit hiding and that over the centuries, its evil intentions have not changed.