"Is there life after death?" ". This question, everyone has already asked themselves one day. On the one hand, there are those who believe it, on the other, the skeptics. Before buying Château de Fougeret, Véronique Geffroy had no certainty. Not closed to the world of the paranormal, but not totally convinced. When in 2009, this professional historian, passionate about old stones, stumbled upon the Château de Fougeret (Vienne), she initially saw nothing but a magnificent 14th century building left abandoned. “Since I was little, I love castles. I dreamed of having one. The opportunity was too good. I bought it, ”she says.
She still does not know that her existence and her beliefs will quickly change. “We had just acquired Fougeret. One day, I came to do some cleaning. Coming down from the chapel, I came across a massive black shadow crossing the entrance hall, ”she recalls. " I was alone. At the time, I was paralyzed but I preferred to ignore it. A little later, I heard the voice of an old woman asking me very curtly what I was doing there. It was so improbable and clear that paradoxically, I didn't believe it, ”continues Véronique. After a few weeks, the tongues loosen at the Geffroy's. Her husband, François-Joseph, a farmer, and their three children, also experience strange events. “We then contacted mediums. To understand what was happening to us.It was there that we learned that Fougeret had a rich and sometimes dark history. And that former occupants who died in the castle still lived there, ”she sums up.
Read alsoA night in the "most haunted house in France"
The years pass and the cohabitation between "the spirits" of Fougeret and the Geffroy family attracts the curious. Articles in the local press relay their story. The TVs are jostling, paranormal fans too. Faced with the influx of requests, Véronique and her husband began to organize spiritualist nights (between 75 and 115 euros per night), where speakers (mediums, numerologist…) supervise the groups to communicate with the beyond. Among these guests, some also claim to have witnessed unexplained phenomena. In 2017, small objects fall without rational explanations. Chairs, bedside tables move by themselves. Beds are shaking. A little girl's voice asking "Who are you" is captured on tape recorders. Photos taken by visitors sow doubt.Sometimes we see the shape of a face in a grayish smoke, sometimes a vaporous black shadow appear in a corridor. There is also this snapshot taken during Heritage Days in one of Fougeret's rooms. We can see the body of a man dressed in another era hiding in one of the castle watchtowers.
Véronique says there is no cheating. “People call me a liar, I know that. But I'm not forcing anyone to come here. If I were the only one going through these things, one might wonder. But here, whole groups are experiencing the same phenomena, at the same time, ”she replies to her detractors. After more than ten years spent at Fougeret, the one everyone nicknamed “the baroness”, needed to put down on paper her many ghostly adventures (Les Invisibles de Fougeret, published by Michel Lafon). “With everything that has happened to us here, I needed to deliver a precise, detailed testimony. It is also for me a form of catharsis. Because living with invisible people is not easy, ”she smiles. So to get to the bottom of it,we went to the "most haunted" castle in France, to experience a spiritualist night ...
“Les Invisibles de Fougeret”,
by Véronique Geffroy, Michel Lafon, 350 p., 18.95 euros.