The Moberly-Jourdain Incident
No doubt, Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon has seen its share of strange and notable historical events. However, I would bet not many people knew it was host to one of the strangest time-travel stories that has ever come across the desks at Astonishing Legends.
On August 10th, 1901 Charlotte Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain were walking the grounds at the Petit Trianon. Both women were professional academics and had gone through quite a bit of school. The two women felt a bit bored of the palace, so it’s no surprise they wandered to Marie Antoinette’s favorite part of the grounds: her little village and chateau.
Although they were initially accompanied by a guide, the two women became a bit lost in the gardens and became disconnected from their tour guide. They passed a road, missing the Allee des Deux Trianons, where they were supposed to turn. When they were walking, they noticed a woman shaking a white cloth out a window, and a deserted farmhouse.
Unsure of what could cause it, both women felt washed by a penetrating sense of oppression and worry. As they continued to walk through the palace gardens, they saw some gardeners who told them to keep walking straight. Charlotte described them a bit strangely for gardeners, “[They] were dignified officials, dressed in long greyish coats with small three-cornered hat.”
As they continued to walk on, Eleanor’s attention was captured by a woman and girl in the doorway of a cottage. She noted that it resembled a living picture, so pastoral and sweet was the scene. But then, the atmosphere changed. Eleanor wrote that, “Everything suddenly looked unnatural, therefore unpleasant” even the trees seemed to become flat and lifeless, like wood worked into a tapestry.
Now, both women had sensed something big was about to happen and that their sense of reality was growing warped by forces outside of their control.
When they approached a kiosk before the entry to the Petit Trianon, there was a man sitting there that the women described as “repulsive” due to his notable smallpox scars. Although they did not exchange words, they said he had evil in his eyes and they felt a “repugnance” when they walked past him.
After Charlotte and Eleanor finally crossed a bridge that allowed them to reach the Petit Trianon, yet another strange figure came into view. This time, it was a woman dressed, according to Charlotte, as quite old-fashioned. She was wearing a light summer dress, and her long hair was laid carefully beneath a white hat. She was in front of the chateau simply sketching. Eleanor never saw this woman.
After sometime, they found another group of visitors and returned to a sense of normalcy as they finished out their time at Versailles.
However, the incident stuck with them. Although the two did not discuss the incident and their strange experience together at first, a week later Charlotte wrote a letter to her sister telling her she believed the Petit Trianon was haunted.
Then, after seeing a portrait of Marie Antoinette for the first time, Charlotte became even more convinced of their strange experience. She was certain, without a doubt, that the woman they had seen sketching that afternoon was none other than the last Queen of France. With more research, she also believed the pock-marked scary man was Comte de Vaudreuil, the Queen’s companion.
After a few months, Charlotte and Eleanor finally came together and shared their own personal research and revelations that occurred on their trip. They agreed it was notable and did believe they had seen several faces of the past.
Using pseudonyms, the two women decided to write a short novel about their experience and findings. They called it An Adventure. It was published in 1911. It became a fairly immediate sensation, as Marie Antoinette was quite infamous even all these centuries later. A sighting of her in the 20th century drove people to read the book. However, more discerning critics called the book inconsistent and impossible. Charlotte and Eleanor’s identities were protected until 1931.
The women, after this experience, would go on to have several more paranormal experiences and perhaps even more time slips.
Oh, that’s what some people believe happened - that the two women accidentally happened onto to a brief rip of time, walked through it, and then were able to return to the right time without even a ripple of pain or intent.
More skeptical ideas believe the two women happened, accidentally, upon a private historical re-enactment. Others, believe they simply had a semi-shared delusion (which explains why they did not both see exactly the same things, but felt a general shared feeling). However, if you know Astonishing Legends, you know how skeptical we are of shared hallucinations.
There is no evidence beyond the book. However, several historians have gone on to write about the women and their experience. One writer Nell Rose observed, “They were not liars, and both ladies had nothing to gain by making up this story. In fact it could go a long way to ruining their reputation.”
Whether they walked on a fancy-dress party, shared a hallucination, or truly slipped through time...something strange definitely happened at the Petit Trianon in 1901.
Many thanks to Kathryn P for this blogstonishing suggestion!
Le Petit Trianon de Versailles, France (entrée sud) Auteur:Colocho. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
