Bit of woo going on at holiday home

[MushyWoo]

Nc'd for this as it's outing.

We arrived at our holiday home in France late on Thursday night to find that it's a (stunning) very old cottage, I would guess 300-400 years at least.

First thing that happened was that my husband plugged his phone in before going to bed and left it on the bedside table. Woke up the next morning to find the phone still there but the charger unplugged and on the floor in the middle of the bedroom a few feet away. Also, during the night, I could hear kids talking, but when I got up to check they were all fast asleep, and I could still hear the talking coming from somewhere in the house as I stood there.

Similar thing the next night, I could hear my daughter's distinct voice, except when my husband went to check the kids were all fast asleep, and I could still hear the talking. The house is very rural and isolated so not from outside, and everything else was switched off.

The morning after this, we were up at 6am to travel somewhere and as I stood in the kitchen brushing my daughter's hair, the electric oven knob turned itself to the autocook setting and began heating up. Bothyself and my daughter were watching it as it happened.

After that, we were away overnight and only returned last night. Today, I opened the fridge and a pack of cheese slices came flying off a perfectly level shelf and past my head.

There have been other corner of the eye things and random stuff moving (that may or may not be down to the kids, of course). I'm not frightened, it's more of a loaded atmosphere than outright sinister. But blimey, we've only been here 2 full days so far so it's a bit much!!

Anyway, tell me yours so that I can feel a bit better about mine 🙂 We're not headed home til Thursday so have a bit to go yet!

Did a lot of cheery loud 'Bonjour' type greetings when we got back last night and I've no idea if it helped but we all had a good night's sleep with nothing odd happening since 🙌 Dh did say he thought he switched off the upstairs lights and they were on when we got back, but I couldn't be sure that I hadn't switched them back on before we left. Were out and about today and consciously switched everything off before we left so we'll see when we get back.

We've also eaten most of the cheese slices, which may or may not have tempered the atmosphere 😁

DH and I stayed in a holiday cottage on the Welsh borders recently; it was the middle 'house' in a line of small barn conversions. Very nicely done, no bad feelings for us, but DDog seemed to sense something we didn't: he would suddenly sit up, and 'watch' something crossing the room, then give a little worried growl and retreat halfway up the stairs, tail down, keeping his eyes fixed on whatever it was moving around. And then it would stop, and he'd go back to sleep again.

He was a Border terrier and more than happy to repel rodent intruders, so if it had been a mouse, he'd have been right at it, even if it had been in the wall cavity. He usually slept downstairs but insisted on following us upstairs to bed all that week.

We asked the owners if anything had happened in the barns yes, we are fans of Uncanny and he said no, but the barns had been used for keeping pregnant ewes during lambing season in the past, close to the farmhouse so they could be checked on overnight. I would tell Danny about it, but I don't think bleary-eyed spectral shepherds/farmer's wives make good radio...

(Sorry, obvious point: we were the only people in the row of cottages at the time, so he wasn't tuning in to next door's movements!)

Well they’re entirely harmless because they don’t exist.

Think with your brain. If an unknown entity was genuinely turning on the cooker and throwing items (leaving a cooker turned on could literally kill the whole family) would you really decline to film it and be the first ever person to provide proof of supernatural activity because you don’t have time and are too busy enjoying your holiday - but not too busy to write the whole story down for people to fawn ‘ooh spooky tell us more rubbish.’

We are indeed! It’s a gorgeous part of 🇫🇷(and very non-judgemental about cheese).

Here's another story for you - parents have holiday home in SW France. Lots of scratching in roof area of bungalow. Stepdad didn't want to go up there (not really woo though!). Turned out to be pine martens! And we always had mice probably coming in from the fields!

@Lesserspottedmama Ah go on! Tell us the story! Loving all of these. I know other woo threads exist, but I’m loving how it’s mixed in with beautiful rural gite imagery and cheese puns.

I don’t know how people expect the OP to film things though. Have the camera running permanently? It’s just not at the front of some peoples minds to grab phones and take photos when things happen. SDS unexpectedly won an award at an event I was at the other day. I was so busy being all pleased and proud and clappy it took me bloody ages to think “photo!”. By which time he was back with his mates and holding a Caprisun which he insisted on posing with alongside his award 😖at least I could ask him to pose again. It’s not like OP can put the cheese back and be like “can you do that again please while I’m filming?”

👏👏👏

If I thought I’d seen genuine evidence of supernatural activity I would buy one of those head straps and film the rest of my holiday completely.

However, if I genuinely thought a ghost was turning the cooker on and off I’d leave because it could gas poison or burn you all to death. But op’s too ‘busy enjoying her holiday’ to record evidence of supernatural activity. Except writing it down for people to say ‘ooh go on, tell us more.’

It’s not like OP can put the cheese back and be like “can you do that again please while I’m filming?”

Oh I don't know, op could chanel Yvette Fielding and say 'if that was you can you do it again please'

I’ve given a solution. If these things are happening with such regularity then buy a head camera and film the entirety of the holiday. If you could provide genuine proof of supernatural activity it would pay for itself.

I mean in only two days there have been several incidents - two of which were outright telekineses. So it shouldn’t take op long to film some more incidents.

ooh good point!

When I shared a house years ago my TV used to come on with the fuzzy screen in the middle of the night (like in American Psycho) but I always knew it was the TV playing silly buggers and I wasn't posssesed or haunted or anything!

I have loads! I turned microwave on, forgetting it was unplugged after we came back from holiday. It still worked despite being unplugged.
Sitting at the table in the dining room, with someone kicking my chair. there was no one behind me.
When i was younger, hearing my mum coming up the stairs. There was no one there.
Hearing my mum getting up in the middle of the night EVERY NIGHT and opening the kitchen door. It wasn't her - I checked one night to ask her what she was doing. She was fast asleep.....

You'd do what???

I'm not sure why some of you think that evidence of the supernatural would 'pay for itself' (I've never heard of anyone making money from footage like that) and I don't know why you're so offended by the fact that I won't give up my holiday to give it to you. If you don't like it then move on instead of posting repetitive skeptical views that add nothing to the thread 🤷

^^ That was in response to @Kanaloa and everyone else who thinks I should set up a 24/7 recording gig

Our flat has a poltergeist - a girl at work’s gran lived there before us and she asked if we had it. Her grandma had same stuff, pans flying off oven etc. not bothered by it, the presence isn’t scary just seems to want attention. I don’t even believe in woo but it happens. Also my late father visits me from time to time but not in the flat.

Definitely a poltergeist.

We used to rent French gites fairly often when the kids were smaller. One cottage we had strange goings on and it seemed to be a childish spirit as it would take board game pieces and hide them! Found some in the bathroom and other places. Son also sleepwalked a lot around the house (never happened anywhere else). It was close to the beaches I’m northern aftance and very rural/old. Didn’t feel unfriendly though. I love these kinds of stories, you’ll be telling them for years 🥰

You don't think anyone would pay for incontrovertible footage of a poltergeist?

It would pay for itself because you’d be the first person in history to have evidence of supernatural activity. And I don’t care less if you give up your holiday or not - I think it’s nonsense so I wasn’t expecting any magical footage of cheese flying. Although I will say if I thought a ghost was turning on the cooker I would leave instantly. Aren’t you worried about fire hazards or gas poisoning? Or are you ‘too busy enjoying your holiday’ to worry about a house fire caused by a cooker that apparently turns in at will?

But yeah, I’m not offended that you won’t. Just a bit perplexed as to why posting repeatedly on here so people can gush ‘oh my god how spooky’ is not taking time out of your holiday but filming genuine supernatural activity is taking time out of your holiday.

One of these sentences is not like the others

One of these sentences is kinda not the same

This is the type of silliness. ‘I don’t believe in woo but it happens.’ If you think it happens of course you believe in it! If you genuinely think a poltergeist was chucking stuff around someone’s granny’s kitchen and ghosts are visiting you how can you say you don’t believe in it?

People say it to make themselves more believable. Oh I was a sceptic/non believer/am not woo at all BUT… ghosts visit me and pans fly around my kitchen. I don’t have any evidence and don’t even believe in it but it does happen.

This is worthy of a post to Uncanny on Twitter. You might make it on the next BBC series!