Misses Moberley and Jourdain visited the palace of Versailles on August 10, 1901.
On a warm August afternoon in 1901, two middle-aged teachers, the Misses Anne Moberley and Eleanor Jourdain, decided to take advantage of their vacations in Paris to visit the Palace of Versailles, which neither of them knew. Both were interested in history and had a certain cultural level, since Miss Moberley was director of the St Hugh Institute, and Miss Jourdain, of a girls' school in Watford. Neither of them tended to be gullible or neurotic.
After touring the palace they sat down to rest in the Hall of Mirrors. The open windows and the scent of the flowers prompted them to come out again, this time in the direction of the Little Trianon, the palace that Louis XV built on the grounds of Versailles, and that his successor,Louis XVI,gave to Queen Marie Antoinette .
They came to an elongated lake, to the right of which was a copse with a clearing, and then another pond, next to which stood the Grand Trianon, a palace built by Louis XIV. They left him on his left and came to a grassy path.
They were not sure of the road and, instead of going down the path, which led directly to the Little Trianon, they crossed it and followed it along a side path. Miss Moberley saw a woman leaning out of the window of a building that had a bend in the path; It was shaking a white cloth. The Englishwoman was surprised to see that her friend did not stop to ask her the way. Then she learned that Miss Jourdain did not do it because she had not seen the woman or the building.
At this point, the two women were unaware that something strange was happening, and they talked animatedly about topics that had nothing to do with it. They turned right, passed some buildings and saw the end of a staircase carved on the other side of an open doorway. They did not stop, but took the central path of the three in front of them; the only reason for them to do so was the presence
of two men who seemed to be working there, with a kind of wheelbarrow and a pointed shovel. They looked like gardeners, although the women thought that they dressed in a strange way; They wore long gray-green jackets and three-cornered hats. The men told them to continue in a straight line and the friends continued as before, absorbed in their conversation.
Irruption of the Past
Miss Anne Moberley and Eleanor Jourdain. Determined to discover what was behind their experience, the two repeatedly visited the Little Trianon, but discovered that the gardens had changed a lot since their first visit.
It was around then that the two women began to feel a certain oppression (independently, they did not comment on the fact at the time); they observed that their surroundings were curiously flat, and both had the feeling that the landscape had become two-dimensional. Those sensations became overwhelming when they approached "a small garden kiosk, circular, like a music kiosk; next to him sat a man ». Neither of them liked the man's appearance; his face was dark and repulsive. They noticed that he was wearing a hat and a Spanish-style hat. Although they did not feel very sure of their way, they would not have spoken to the man at the kiosk for anything in the world.
They were relieved to hear footsteps approaching quickly behind them but, when they turned, the path was empty. All in all, Miss Moberley saw another person who suddenly appeared. He seemed "undoubtedly a gentleman ... tall, with big dark eyes ... curly black hair". He also wore a Spanish hat and coat and seemed nervous when he told them where the house was. He smiled at them in a way that seemed peculiar to them but, when they turned to thank him, he had disappeared. They heard again the sound of someone running, apparently very close to them, but they did not see anyone. (Google Translation).
Full story here. In Spanish
despiertacordoba.wordpress.com/2013/08/18/saltos-en-el-tiempo-excursion-al-pasado/
La experiencia que vivieron dos inglesas durante una visita a Versalles en verano de 1901 fue discutida durante muchos años. Las señoritas Moberley y Jourdain afirmaban haber retrocedido al siglo X…
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