homeThis has nothing to do with France, but it is a true story that happened to me and my son last week. Too interesting not to post! This really happened ....
Last week, I went on an eight-day trip to England and Scotland with my two teenagers. We rented a car and drove from Brighton all the way up through England, to Glasgow, and finished in Edinburgh. The goal of the trip was to look at universities for my daughter. I put all thoughts of writing, ghosts, vampires, and goblins out of my mind and off we went.
Five days in, we arrived Edinburgh. The day before, I had googled Bed and Breakfasts, found a cute little guest house, called, and reserved for three nights.
It was a perfect location, a block off Princes Street with a view of the castle. Hence its name, Castle View Guest House. It was an old house, built around 170 years ago, five stories high. Cute and charming. The author Kenneth Grahame who wrote Wind In The Willows used to live there.
They fellow who checked us in was just as nice as could be. We filled out all the paperwork and then he said in a lovely Scottish accent, "Hope you don't mind a ghost hanging round." I replied, "What? A Ghost? Seriously?" He said, "Yeah, there's a ghost that lives upstairs in the top room. Plenty of clients have experienced a feeling of very cold suddenly, the hairs on the back of their necks stick up, and they hear strange noises in the night."
I repleid, "Wow, that is cool! It just so happens that I am an author of horror and am writing a guide to haunted places in France." Unfortunately we were not given the top room as it was already taken.
The next morning, I spoke with the manageress who served us breakfast. "So, I hear there's a ghost in the house, have you ever seen it?"
She replied, "Oh, no , no! Don't talk with me about the ghost. I live here and don't want to know about it! It scares me, it does."
I said, "Yeah, but it's clearly a good ghost, a nice ghost, because no one has ever complained of anything bad happening."
"True, true," she replied.
"So, have you seen it?" I asked again.
She sighed in resignation and said, "Yeah, sure, he's there alright. Every time I am in the room, making up the beds or cleaning the bathrooms, the hairs stand up on the back of my neck and I feel a presence. When I clean the bathroom, I see movement in the mirror. I see shadows moving around in the room out of the corner of my eye. And When I am cooking in the kitchen (which is one floor down from the top room), I never feel like I am alone, there is always a presence and I see movements going back and fourth in the hallway."
Well, I was thrilled to say the least. My son, who is thirteen was super excited as well. All day long he kept asking me if we could get into the room, he wanted to speak with the ghost, he wanted to see where the ghost was, etc. He talked to the ghost while in our own rom and invited him in.
My son has always talked and walked in his sleep. One time he woke up under the shower in the middle of the night, washing his hair. Scary stuff. I have always been nervous about him walking right out the front door in his sleep. I have a habit of sleeping lightly and keeping an eye on him. During the trip, he had been talking up a storm in his sleep, driving my daughter and I crazy. He speaks in French and English in his sleep as he is 100% bi-lingual.
So, that night, he starts talking in his sleep. It was in a language that I had never heard before. I was instantly completely awake. It was definitely not a bunch of blah, blah, blah mumbling, he was speaking a foreign language, complete with punctuation. He spoke a long time, using a couple dozen of phrases. My daughter woke up and heard it as well (she told me the next morning). As I listened to him speak, I knew with utter certainty that he was speaking Gaelic Scottish. I just knew. I had heard Gaelic Irish spoken before and the two languages are very similar. (Gaelic Scottish is actually Gaelic Irish that was brought to Scotland 1,600 years ago.)
Twenty minutes or so later, my son got out of bed and walked towards the door. I had not gone back to sleep. He was clearly sleep walking. I said, "Whoa, hey, back to bed for you!" He replied, "No, I need to go see something." I said, "No. You are sleep walking and you need to go back to bed." He repeated to me that he needed to go see something. Finally I was able to get him to go back to bed.
Another twenty minutes or so later he says quite loudly in English, "You are not a human being. You are not a human being. You are not a human being."
Needless to say, I didn't sleep a wink the rest of the night. The next morning, I told him what had transpired in the night and asked him if he remembered anything. He said that he only remembered something that had felt very intense and profound, but no details.
My son was pretty excited about the whole thing. He is an old soul, a person with a tender heart whose eyes are very open to seeing what others oftentimes miss. He has a gift for communicating with all animals and people who are scared and need help. He told me that he thought the ghost was definitely trying to communicate something important to me through him. He said that he felt the ghost was bored and wanted to find a way to leave the house and needed help. He thought the ghost was three or four hundred years old. He didn't feel danger.
Did we experience a ghostly encounter? We certainly weren't looking for one, it simply fell into our laps. I tend to believe that we encountered some sort of spirit. I don't really know how else my son would have been able to speak Gaelic Scottish in full sentences.
If you are ever in Edinburgh, go and see for yourself: http://www.castleviewgh.co.uk/
I highly recommend the place. It's recently refurbished and gorgeous and cozy. It is located within walking distance of everything. The service is super friendly and the Scottish breakfasts are copious delicious and included in your room rate.
Voila! Ghost encounters of the first kind.
Love, Charley
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