The Haunted Social Housing Of Fontenay-Aux-Roses

[AmStramGram]

In June 2022, ten families living in a social housing block in Fontenay-aux-Roses, France (close to Paris) requested to be moved away from the building on the allegation that he was haunted since 2019.

They reported strange phenomena such as lights going on in an unoccupied appartement, disembodied footsteps, moving furniture, and unexpected tickling sensations.

Source (in French) : https://www.20minutes.fr/societe/33...mmeuble-hante-devraient-obtenir-un-relogement

Interestingly, the landlord has agreed to study the families' request. Four months later, some of the families have been offered a new homes, others have withdrawn their request. What's more ? An imam and a Catholic priest have been called in to perform an exorcism of the building.

source (in French, again) : https://www.leparisien.fr/hauts-de-...sme-11-10-2022-OJXDIMRLOREY5OENFPOFFCVRSU.php

According to the residents, the culprit for the haunting is the former occupant of the deserted appartement where the lights go on spontaneously. The man died in 2019, and the weird phenomena started soon after.

Sorry for not providing English language links. I just found out this story and thought it was too good not to be shared immediately.

I myself spent the first years of my life in a social housing scheme in the Western suburb of Paris, and although I experienced strange things in these large and charmless concrete buildings, that's the last place you would imagine ghostly happenings taking place !

 

[AmStramGram]

Vidéo in French : https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...o7QBegQIBxAB&usg=AOvVaw3hMBSR_KJQ_96yuzbVvzuI

The interviewed lady does not report very spectacular phenomena : chairs and dishes move on their own (but apparently not when she looks at them), her son wakes up in the middle of the night because someone tickles his little feet, and lights open and close unexpectedly.

 

[AmStramGram]

An English language article on the topic : https://time.news/convinced-that-their-building-is-haunted-they-ask-to-be-rehoused/

 

[Spookdaddy]

...I myself spent the first years of my life in a social housing scheme in the Western suburb of Paris, and although I experienced strange things in these large and charmless concrete buildings, that's the last place you would imagine ghostly happenings taking place !

I've always found ghost stories associated with modern buildings somehow far more interesting - and often more genuinely disconcerting - than old-school haunted house tales.

I'm also interested in the cultural aspect of this. I've always been lead to believe (possibly completely wrongly, I'll admit) that the French are nowhere near as into their ghost stories as we are in the UK - which might mean that for a story like this to be considered newsworthy, then something special must be going on. I'm also interested in the fact that representatives of two major religions are involved - I get that this reflects the make up of both the host country and the immigrant population of many Parisian suburbs - but again, it kind of suggests how seriously the issue is being taken, at least by some.

Thanks for posting.

 

[AmStramGram]

I'm also interested in the cultural aspect of this. I've always been lead to believe (possibly completely wrongly, I'll admit) that the French are nowhere near as into their ghost stories as we are in the UK - which might mean that for a story like this to be considered newsworthy, then something special must be going on. I'm also interested in the fact that representatives of two major religions are involved - I get that this reflects the make up of both the host country and the immigrant population of many Parisian suburbs - but again, it kind of suggests how seriously the issue is being taken, at least by some.

The population of these suburbs is indeed usually very cosmopolitan, with lots of people coming from North and Western Africa. That's probably why an imam was invited to perform an exorcism.

One of my colleagues is from Ivory Coast and he deeply believes in the paranormal, regularly telling us tall tales about the "spirit of the Banco forest", stories of magicians hiding whole villages from the view of the French colonial army, or about the feats of his great grandfather who could travel on foot faster than with a car by unknown "magical" means (at a time cars were inexistent) ...

Paris is also famous for its "Marabouts", North African Magicians promising love and wealth to their clients. One sometimes find small paper ads for their services in mailboxes. These ads are naive and often fun. I recently received one about a Marabout claiming to cure COVID by phone, repair electronic devices through magic, and, of course, solving erectile dysfunctions. I especially loved his core promise : "Satisfaction guaranteed in 2 days, and results in 72 hours" ... Wow ! That's magic indeed ! You're satisfied even before you get your results !

In other words, Paris is very multicultural.

 

[Salmonellus]

The population of these suburbs is indeed usually very cosmopolitan, with lots of people coming from North and Western Africa. That's probably why an imam was invited to perform an exorcism.

One of my colleagues is from Ivory Coast and he deeply believes in the paranormal, regularly telling us tall tales about the "spirit of the Banco forest", stories of magicians hiding whole villages from the view of the French colonial army, or about the feats of his great grandfather who could travel on foot faster than with a car by unknown "magical" means (at a time cars were inexistent) ...

Paris is also famous for its "Marabouts", North African Magicians promising love and wealth to their clients. One sometimes find small paper ads for their services in mailboxes. These ads are naive and often fun. I recently received one about a Marabout claiming to cure COVID by phone, repair electronic devices through magic, and, of course, solving erectile dysfunctions. I especially loved his core promise : "Satisfaction guaranteed in 2 days, and results in 72 hours" ... Wow ! That's magic indeed ! You're satisfied even before you get your results !

In other words, Paris is very multicultural.

So the Marabouts are a case of parasites preying on the Parisites?

 

[AmStramGram]

Some more details about what's going on, especially on the social background of the case :

Four out of ten families asking for rehousing have been denied the opportunity to do so because they haven't been paying their rents for a while.

Among the six other families, only two admit being afraid & disturbed by the phenomena. The others now insist that their main motivation for moving away is the dilapidated state of the building (no elevator, water infiltrations).

It's the mayor of the town who took the initiative to hire the two exorcists. That might be a gesture to compensate the lack of rehousing perspectives for most of the residents ...

source : https://www.bfmtv.com/paris/fontena...par-un-pretre-et-un-imam_AN-202210120687.html

 

[maximus otter]

Four out of ten families asking for rehousing have been denied the opportunity to do so because they haven't been paying their rents for a while.

Among the six other families, only two admit being afraid & disturbed by the phenomena. The others now insist that their main motivation for moving away is the dilapidated state of the building (no elevator, water infiltrations).

My cynical first thought was that these tales were a ploy to get the local council to move them to different accommodation.

maximus otter

 

[AmStramGram]

Another French article gives more details, although I cannot access all the contents : https://www.lefigaro.fr/faits-diver...istoire-rocambolesque-d-un-hlm-hante-20221014

We now have the exact address of the supposedly haunted building : 100 avenue Gabriel Peri.

The priest and imam exorcists inspected the "haunted appartement" and a witness concludes that "all is fine".

Unfortunately I cannot access the rest of the article.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Another French article gives more details, although I cannot access all the contents : https://www.lefigaro.fr/faits-diver...istoire-rocambolesque-d-un-hlm-hante-20221014

We now have the exact address of the supposedly haunted building : 100 avenue Gabriel Peri.

The priest and imam exorcists inspected the "haunted appartement" and a witness concludes that "all is fine".

Unfortunately I cannot access the rest of the article.

Not sure it's worth a subscription to continuez à lire votre article pour 0,99€ le premier mois.
My wife's cousin and his wife lived not far from there in Issy-les-Moulineaux. It was quite a grim area!
Generally though, I find that the French side of the family are less likely to believe in the supernatural and would dismiss the events as fabrication or a manifestation of acute social issues.

 

[maximus otter]

Another French article gives more details, although I cannot access all the contents : https://www.lefigaro.fr/faits-diver...istoire-rocambolesque-d-un-hlm-hante-20221014

We now have the exact address of the supposedly haunted building : 100 avenue Gabriel Peri.

That’s the street entrance (Ignore the caption.)

maximus otter

 

[Spookdaddy]

My cynical first thought was that these tales were a ploy to get the local council to move them to different accommodation...

There's that - and I'm pretty sure it does happen, but given that such phenomena are not at all universally accepted, and probably don't fit comfortably within the drily administrative world of local government, I've always thought that ghosts would be a poor place to start. After all, you can photograph dead rats, leaking roofs and raw sewage (and if they don't exist, you can make them happen) - it's a bit more problematic proving that the undead are watching you do the washing up to the harassed representative of some colourless local government department.

Some cultures are conscious of spirits in a way that even those of us who are ghost loving Brits are not. A retired ex neighbour of mine, who worked with refugees in the 70's and 80's, told me that the Vietnamese he dealt with were hyper attuned to ghosts – and, in a more immediate sense, the potential for ghosts. In the early days of the post-Vietnam War exodus this caused some problems, not least because no-one actually knew what the problem was, and the refugees were too shy, polite and emotionally exhausted to explain. (He told me a story about mirrors, the details of which I cannot now remember – but which involved two families sleeping in the kitchen of a house because of the placement of mirrors in the other rooms. And there was no sense that he was making fun of them – the issue was clearly one of deep seated and genuine concern.)