[00:00:00] This is Midnight Signals . I'm Russ Chamberlain. Tonight, we walk the gardens of Versailles, where the past never truly fades and time itself can bend in mysterious ways. The summer sun beat down on the gardens of Versailles on August 10th, 1901. Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain, two proper English academics, strolled along the gravel paths, guidebook in hand.
[00:00:30] The main palace, with its hall of mirrors and royal chambers, had been impressive enough. But they were eager to find the Petit Trianon, Marie Antoinette's private retreat, a place where the doomed queen had once sought escape from the suffocating formality of court life. Neither woman was given to flights of fancy.
[00:00:48] Charlotte Moberly was the daughter of a bishop and principal of St. Hugh's College in Oxford. Eleanor Jourdain was a respected linguist who would later become the college's vice principal. They were creatures of logic and learning, not imagination and superstition. Both had built their careers on careful observation and rational analysis.
[00:01:08] Their scholarly backgrounds made them particularly reliable witnesses. which would become crucial to the credibility of what followed. The air was warm that afternoon as they wandered through the sprawling grounds. Taurus milled about the main gardens. But as Mowberley and Jordain ventured down a side path toward the Petit Trianon, the crowds thinned.
[00:01:28] They followed their guidebook's directions, turning onto a lane they believed would lead them to their destination. The trees cast dappled shadows across the path. Birds sang in the branches overhead. By all accounts, it was an entirely ordinary summer day at one of France's most visited historical sites.
[00:01:46] Then something changed. The world around them shifted, subtle, yet profound. Moberly would later describe it as a sudden dream like feeling that descended without warning. Jourdain called it an unaccountable heaviness and sense of unreality. The bright summer day dimmed as if the clouds had passed before the sun, though the sky remained clear.
[00:02:08] Sounds became muffled and the birdsong faded to silence. The air grew thick and viscous, pressing against their skin. A strange stillness enveloped them, as if they stepped into a painting rather than a living garden. They noted the sudden quiet and the strange absence of other tourists. The grounds of Versailles, always bustling with visitors, had emptied in an instant, yet they pressed on.
[00:02:32] Increasingly uneasy, but drawn forward by curiosity. Ahead, a woman leaned from a window of a small stone cottage, shaking out a white cloth. Nothing remarkable about this scene, except that years later, they would discover that the building had been demolished decades before their visit. The cottage had stood there in the 1780s, but had been removed during renovations in 1843.
[00:02:56] The path narrowed, overshadowed by trees that weren't marked on their map. Ancient oaks formed a canopy overhead. Though their guidebooks indicated this area should be open parkland. A small footbridge crossed the stream, a bridge that historical records would later confirm had been removed during renovations 50 years earlier.
[00:03:16] The very landscape around them had transformed, reverting to an earlier configuration from another century. Two men approached, dressed in long greenish coats and tricorn hats, the everyday fashion of the late 18th century, not the early 20th. These weren't costumes of the sort worn by historical reenactors.
[00:03:36] They were authentic in every detail, from the worn leather of their shoes to the tarnished buttons on their waistcoats. Moberly noticed they moved with a curious jerkiness, their gestures oddly theatrical, as if performing for an unseen audience. The men passed without acknowledging the two Englishwomen, as if they didn't see them at all.
[00:03:56] They continued along the unfamiliar path, increasingly disoriented. Nothing matched their guidebook. Buildings appeared where there should have been open lawn. Gardens existed where their map showed structures. A stone gazebo stood where their book indicated a fountain should be. Hedges formed intricate patterns that differed completely from the modern design of the gardens.
[00:04:17] It had somehow stepped into a different version of Versailles, a version that no longer existed in 1901. A man appeared on the path ahead, his face deeply pockmarked, his skin bearing the unmistakable scars of smallpox. He wore an old fashioned cloak despite the summer heat, and an oversized hat that sat low on his brow.
[00:04:38] When they hesitated at a fork in the path, clearly lost, he pointed toward the right fork with a sweeping gesture that Moberly later described as theatrical and not of our time. His clothing, manner, and appearance belonged to another era entirely. This figure they would later discover matched the descriptions of Claude Robillard, Marie Antoinette's personal gardener in the 1780s.
[00:05:01] known for having survived a childhood bout of smallpox that left his face permanently scarred. The path led them to a meadow near a terrace. The grass grew long and wild, unlike the perfectly manicured lawns of modern Versailles. Wildflowers dotted the fields in bursts of color. There, seated on the grass with a sketch pad, was a lady in eighteenth century dress.
[00:05:24] A young girl stood nearby, watching the woman draw. The lady wore what Moberly later described with remarkable precision. A light summer dress with a long bodice and full skirt, a pale green feet shoe, and a large white hat. Her hair was arranged in the unmistakable style of pre revolutionary France, powdered and dressed high above her forehead.
[00:05:46] As they approached, the sketching woman looked up. Her face held a profound melancholy, an expression of such depth that both women would later remark upon it independently. Her eyes, clear and piercing, seemed to look straight through them, as if she existed in another reality altogether. For just a moment, their eyes met across centuries, a connection between women separated by time yet occupying the same space.
[00:06:13] Then she returned to her sketching, her attention once more on the paper before her. And the two Englishwomen continued on their way, thoroughly bewildered but still not comprehending what was happening to them. They had no framework for understanding their experience, no context for recognizing they had somehow slipped through time.
[00:06:33] They rounded a bend in the path, and the world shifted again. The strange heaviness lifted, the air cleared, the sounds of other tourists returned. Conversations, footsteps on gravel, a guide's voice in the distance. And suddenly, they found themselves at the Petit Trianon, surrounded by visitors and modern dress.
[00:06:53] Both women felt as though awakening from a dream. Everything suddenly normal again. The transition was as abrupt as it had been when they first crossed the invisible threshold into the past. They toured the Petit Trianon as planned, making no mention to each other of the peculiar atmosphere and the strange figures they had encountered.
[00:07:13] The building stood before them in its 1901 condition, the 19th century renovations clearly visible. Gone were the 18th century figures, the altered landscape, the buildings that shouldn't exist. Each privately wondered if she had imagined it all, or perhaps suffered some momentary disorientation from the summer heat.
[00:07:34] The rest of their visit passed without incident. They completed their tour of the grounds, took tea at a nearby cafe, and returned to Paris by evening train. Both women recorded their impressions of Versailles in their travel journals that night, including brief mentions of strange figures and odd sensations in the gardens, but neither fully articulated the extent of their experience.
[00:07:56] Perhaps they feared sounding irrational, even in their private writings. It wasn't until months later, back in England, that they finally discussed their experience. One evening in November, reminiscing about their Paris trip, Jourdain casually mentioned the odd people in old fashioned clothes they had seen at Versailles.
[00:08:15] Moberly was astonished to learn Jourdain had seen them too. The conversation that followed lasted deep into the night as they began comparing notes, growing increasingly amazed as they realized they had shared identical perceptions of impossible things. Each had seen the same anachronistic figures, felt the same atmospheric changes, and noticed the same architectural features that shouldn't have existed in 1901.
[00:08:39] The similarities in their independent recollections were too precise to be coincidence. They had both seen the pockmarked gardener, the woman shaking the cloth from the window, the two men in greenish coats, and most strikingly, the lady sketching on the grass. Both had felt the same sudden heaviness in the air, the same dreamlike quality to their surroundings.
[00:09:01] Both had noticed the same cottage that shouldn't have been there, the same bridge that shouldn't have existed. Most academics would have dismissed the experience as a shared delusion, a curiosity to be noted and forgotten. But Moberly and Jourdain were scholars to their core. They approached their impossible experience with the same methodical rigor they applied to their academic work.
[00:09:23] If what happened to them was real, if they had somehow perceived Versailles as it existed in another time, then evidence should exist to confirm or refute their experience. Over the next decade, they made multiple return trips to Versailles. Each visit revealed more discrepancies between what they had seen in 1901 and the actual layout of the modern grounds.
[00:09:46] They scoured historical archives in both England and France, spending countless hours in libraries and government record offices. They studied old maps and architectural plans of the grounds, tracing changes made to Versailles across centuries. They researched the people who had inhabited Versailles in the final years before the French Revolution, examining portraits, diaries, and official records.
[00:10:10] What they discovered left them shaken. The cottage they had seen had indeed existed, but had been demolished in 1843. Contemporary accounts described it as exactly as they had seen it, down to the placement of its windows and the color of its stone. The bridge they had crossed had been removed during renovations in the 1850s.
[00:10:29] Period illustrations show the exact structure they remembered crossing. The layout of the gardens and pathways they described match perfectly with maps from 1789, not 1901. In dozens of specific details, what they had seen corresponded not to the Versailles of their own time, but to the Versailles as it had existed more than a century earlier.
[00:10:51] Most disturbing of all were the people they had encountered. The gardener with the pockmarked face matched historical descriptions of Marie Antoinette's gardener, Claude Brabillard, who had died in 1791. Court records mentioned his distinctive scarring and his habit of wearing an oversized hat regardless of weather.
[00:11:09] The two men in greenish coats matched the uniform of the Queen's private guards, who wore a specific shade of green unique to the petite Trinon staff. And the woman sketching on the grass? After extensive research in the French National Archives, They became convinced she had been Marie Antoinette herself.
[00:11:27] The queen was known to enjoy sketching in the gardens of the Petit Trianon. The pale green feet shoe, a neckerchief worn by women in the 18th century, was documented as one of her favorite accessories. The young girl standing nearby likely would have been one of her children, possibly her daughter Marie Therese, the only one of her children to survive the revolution.
[00:11:47] Eleanor Jordain found a portrait in the archives that she immediately recognized. The very tall young man, distinctively unpleasant looking, with a pale face and a small dark mustache they had passed on the grounds. It was Comte de Vaudreuil, a close associate of Marie Antoinette and frequent visitor to the Petit Triennum.
[00:12:06] Jourdain insisted she had never seen his likeness before that moment. Yet she identified him instantly among dozens of period portraits. The date of their visit held a particular significance. On October 10th, 1792, exactly 109 years before their experience, Marie Antoinette learned that the revolutionaries had stormed the Toulouse Palace.
[00:12:28] The event that effectively marked the end of the French monarchy and set in motion the chain of events that would lead to her execution. On that day, she had been at the Petit Trianon when messengers brought news that would destroy her world. Historical accounts describe her receiving the news in stoic dignity that masked her inner despair.
[00:12:48] Had the trauma of that moment somehow tore through the fabric of time? Had the Queen's emotional connection to her beloved retreat created an echo that could sometimes be glimpsed by sensitive visitors? The coincidence of date seemed too precise to be mere chance. Something about August 10th appeared to thin boundaries between 1792 and 1901, allowing Moberly and Jordain to perceive echoes of that fateful day.
[00:13:15] In 1911, a decade after meticulous research, Moberly and Jourdain published their account under the pseudonyms Elizabeth Morrison and Francis Lamont in a book titled An Adventure. They chose anonymity not from shame, but fearing the ridicule might damage their academic standing. The book meticulously documented their experience and subsequent research, presenting the evidence with scholarly precision.
[00:13:40] They included configuration, alongside historical maps from the 1780s that confirmed their observations. We were not seeking any particular vision or experience, they wrote. We were not expecting anything unusual. We simply found ourselves in the midst of something that did not belong in our time. Their book created a sensation in both academic circles and among the general public.
[00:14:07] Many dismissed it as fantasy or fabrication. Critics suggested they somehow researched 18th century Versailles before their visit and convinced themselves they had seen it. Others proposed they had wandered into a historical pageant or reenactment. Though no such event had been scheduled that day, yet others were struck by the detailed historical accuracy of elements they couldn't possibly have known during their visit.
[00:14:32] The women described architectural features and landscape details that weren't documented in any guidebook of the period but were later confirmed by obscure historical records. They identified historical figures whose appearances weren't widely known, including minor members of Marie Antoinette's court who rarely appeared in popular histories.
[00:14:52] Most intriguing were the accounts that began to emerge from the other visitors to the Petit Trianon who had experienced similar, if less complete, phenomena after the publication of an adventure. The book seemed to open the floodgates for others who had encountered temporal anomalies at Versailles but had previously kept silent for fear of ridicule.
[00:15:11] A British couple in 1912 reported feeling overwhelmed by inexplicable melancholy, before witnessing a woman in elaborate dress with powdered hair, who vanished when approached. A French family in 1925 described the gardens shifting and changing before their eyes, with structures appearing and disappearing as they walked.
[00:15:32] An American family in 1955 heard harpsichord music coming from an empty pavilion and saw people in 18th century clothing who disappeared when they tried to photograph them. French researcher Jean Marchand documented over 30 similar experiences at Versailles between 1949 and 1952. He noted that many occurred around August 10th, suggesting the possibility that on certain anniversary date, the boundaries between our times might grow temporarily thinner.
[00:16:01] Other sightings clustered around October 5th, the date in 1789 when revolutionary women marched on Versailles and forced the royal family to return to Paris. These temporal clustering patterns suggest certain dates might serve as anchors for temporal phenomena. Days when emotional resonance of historical events might be strong enough to breach the barriers between times.
[00:16:24] The Petit Trianon became known among paranormal researchers as the Thin Spot, a location where the veil between past and present occasionally part, allowing glimpses across centuries. The gardens where Marie Antoinette had sought refuge from court pressures became known as a place where time itself sometimes bends.
[00:16:43] The Petit Trianon became known among paranormal researchers as the Thin Spot, a location where the veil between past and present occasionally parts, allowing glimpses across centuries. The gardens where Marie Antoinette had sought refuge from court pressures became known as a place where time itself sometimes bends.
[00:17:02] Visitors began to report similar phenomena at other locations with intense historical significance. Ancient battlefields, medieval cathedrals, sites of profound tragedy or triumph. But none produced as many documented cases of temporal displacement at the Garden of Versailles. Neither Moberly nor Jourdain ever experienced anything similar before or after their Versailles adventure.
[00:17:27] The uniqueness of their experience suggested they hadn't simply been prone to hallucination or fantasy. Something specific to that place, that day, had allowed them to perceive a reality normally hidden from human awareness. Jourdain died in 1924, Moberly in 1937. Both maintained until their deaths that they had experienced something genuinely extraordinary.
[00:17:51] A moment when they had somehow stepped into the past. What makes their story so compelling is not just what they saw, but how they responded to it. They didn't leap to supernatural conclusions or build elaborate theories. Instead, they investigated with academic discipline, documented with precision, and presented their findings with scholarly restraint.
[00:18:12] They approached their impossible experience with the tools of academic research rather than mystical speculation. Their account transforms our understanding of time itself. If Charlotte Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain truly walked the gardens of Versailles as they existed in 1789, then time might not be the rigid, forward flowing river we perceive it to be.
[00:18:34] It might instead be a vast landscape where all moments exist simultaneously. A multidimensional terrain where past, present, and future coexist, separated by boundaries that occasionally, under the right conditions, become momentarily permeable. This view of time aligns with certain interpretations of modern physics.
[00:18:54] Einstein demonstrated that time is relative rather than absolute, capable of stretching and bending under certain conditions. Quantum physics suggests that on the smallest scales, time may not flow in a single direction at all. The Bloch universe theory proposes that all moments in time, past, present, and future, exist permanently, with our consciousness merely sequentially, creating an illusion of time's passage.
[00:19:22] If these theories hold truth, then perhaps what Moberly and Jordan experienced wasn't supernatural at all, but a glimpse of time's true nature, a momentary perception of what exists always, but remains hidden from ordinary awareness. Perhaps under certain conditions, influenced by the emotional resonance of historical events, the unique properties of certain locations, or the receptive state of certain observers, the boundaries between temporal planes temporarily dissolve, allowing perception across centuries.
[00:19:54] Other explanations have been proposed over the decade. Some suggest they experienced a form of shared hallucination triggered by the power of suggestion in the romantic atmosphere of Versailles. Others propose they encountered what parapsychologists call a residual haunting. Not ghosts in the traditional sense, but psychic imprints of past events replaying like a recording in receptive environments.
[00:20:18] Still, others suggest they may have briefly slipped into a parallel reality where history took a slightly different course. An alternate timeline adjacent to our own. But none of these theories fully account for the precision of their observations. The historical accuracy of detail they couldn't have known.
[00:20:36] And the subsequent experiences of others at the same location. Something extraordinary happened to Charlotte Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain in the gardens of Versailles on August 10th, 1901. Something that challenges our understanding of reality itself. The next time you visit a place steeped in history, Pay attention to sudden shifts in the atmosphere.
[00:20:58] Notice if sounds become muffled or the air grows heavy. Look for faces and figures that seem somehow out of place. You might, like Charlotte Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain on that August afternoon in 1901, find yourself walking paths that exist in two times at once. This has been Midnight Signals. I'm Russ Chamberlain.
[00:21:19] The past is never truly gone. Sometimes it walks alongside of us, just a step away through the thin places of the world.
