Versailles Time Slip

The following story is about one of the first and most famous Time Slip encounters recorded.

Palace at Versailles

Two English ladies Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain in August of 1901, visited the Palace of Versailles in France. As they toured the palace, they became bored and went outside to explore the gardens and see the Petit Trianon—a small chateau on the grounds.

Petit Trianon

But they were informed that the Petit Trianon was closed for the day, so the two women decided to continue exploring the grounds. At one point, they became turned around and discovered they were lost.

It was at this point, a feeling of weariness and oppression overtook both women. They noticed the pleasant sunny day took on a fuzzy appearance. Things now seemed out of place.

They watched a woman shake a white sheet out one farmhouse window, and noticed there was an old fashioned plow in front of this structure.

They observed the people around them were all dressed in funny old- fashioned clothing. Several of the men wore three-cornered hats. Jourdain commented later that these figures reminded her of the wax figures in Madame Tussauds.

Eleanor Jourdain

Jourdain also noted that everything around them all of a sudden looked unreal . . . unpleasant.

The trees even appeared flat and lifeless. She stated there was no play of light and shadow, you usually see on a sunny day.

One man the pair spotted was so rough in appearance--pockmarked face, dark expression, wearing a floppy hat and large cloak-- that Jourdain admitted he repulsed her. The two women decided they didn’t even want to walk past him.

A more pleasant tall man with curly hair approached them and showed them the way to the Petit Trianon.

Charlotte Moberly

After they crossed one bridge, Moberly spotted a stately woman with fair hair wearing a large white hat sketching on the grass. This woman wore a pale summer frock and looked directly at her without interest. Moberly afterward came to believe that this woman was Marie Antoinette. 

Once the two women reached the entrance, they were joined by a group of modern-day tourists. They stated that the strange feelings that had overtaken them vanished at this point.

When what both women saw and experienced, that day in early August, was made public, they were ridiculed. 

But they both were reliable sources. Moberly and Jourdain were not young girls, they both were well educated, and had met while they were principals of a women’s residence hall at Hugh’s College in Oxford. Jourdain also ran her own school.

Portrait of Marie Antoinette
that reminded Moberly of
women she saw.

It wasn’t until years after their encounter they wrote about it and published it in a book entitled, An Adventure in 1911. They used pin names. It wasn’t until four months after Jourdain died, in 1931, that their real names came out.

The two women were firmly convinced that the grounds at Versailles were haunted, and what they saw that day were ghosts. 

Their experience of walking out of the 20^th century directly into the 16^th century was later labeled a Time Slip experience.

I talk about what Time Slips are, and share several modern-day encounters here.