Time Warp: A Strange Encounter at Versailles

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At last, through the trees, they caught sight of the Petit Trianon. Near the house, Miss Moberly noticed a woman sketching on the grass. The woman stared at her, much to Miss Moberly’s irritation. Once the ladies were inside the chateau, their depression lifted and the arrival of a lively wedding party soon helped them to forget the strange atmosphere they had sensed earlier.

A Haunting Experience

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A week later, while Miss Moberly was writing a letter about the visit to Versailles, she experienced the same oppressive sensation again. The feeling was so strong that she felt compelled to ask Miss Jourdain if she thought the Petit Trianon was haunted.

Miss Jourdain had to admit that she did. For the first time the women discussed their experiences and became convinced that something quite extraordinary had happened to them. For instance, they had walked up to the lady who was sketching alone in the garden and she had stared at them. But Miss Moberly was astonished to learn that Miss Jourdain had seen nothing but trees and grass. Intrigued, they decided to investigate.

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On her return to England Miss Moberly discovered that in 1792 on August 10 – the same date the two had visited Versailles – Marie Antoinette and her husband, Louis XVI, were imprisoned all day in a small room in Paris awaiting trial. Miss Moberly believed it likely that he humiliated and oppressed queen’s thoughts might have returned to the last moments of happiness she knew – at her chateau in Versailles shortly before the Revolution began. Perhaps the queen’s memory of the time was so vivid that, as Miss Moberly put it, “some impress of it was imparted to the place,” Could this be an explanation for their strange experience?

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When Miss Moberly and Moss Jourdain returned to Versailles two years later, they found, to their astonishment, that everything had changed. The grounds and buildings they remembered were no longer the same.

Puzzling Discoveries

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But old records and plans of the palace revealed that in 1789 the gardens were as the two women had first seen them. The clothes people had worn, which had struck them as slightly odd and dated for 1901, were the height of fashion in 1789. Miss Moberly’s excitement increased when she discovered a portrait of Marie Antoinette: it was the exact image of the “sketching lady” she had seen near the chateau.

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Over the years the two ladies dedicated their vacations to their research. All their findings confirmed their belief that they had seen Versailles as it was 112 years before. In 1911 they published their account in a book, An Adventure. The two women were so concerned about losing their professional credibility that they felt compelled to publish their account of the story under pseudonyms. It was only after Miss Jourdain’s death in 1924 that their true identities were revealed. The book caused a sensation and was considered to be the best authenticated ghost story of its time.

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A few critics, however, were reluctant to accept the women’s findings. Some thought that they had been hallucinating. Others believed that the women had met and spoken to ordinary people, became confused about the layout of the gardens, and made their story fit their romantic notions.

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There can be no doubt that the events of that summer afternoon were real enough to Miss Moberly and Miss Jourdain. But the nature of their experience – whether they stepped back in time, were caught up in the traces of a distraught queen’s memory, or shared a particularly vivid hallucination – remains, to this day, a baffling mystery.