Haunted Places in France (82)

Explore 82 haunted places in France — castles, hotels, churches, ruins and more. Every location includes its story and GPS coordinates.

• 🚇 Catacombs of Paris Île-de-France, Paris The remains of 6 million people beneath the streets of Paris — moved there in nightly processions from 1788.
• 👻 Château de Tiffauges Pays de la Loire In Bluebeard's castle, children's cries are still said to echo at night — this was the lair of Gilles de Rais. 🛏 Book a night here
• ⚰️ Site of the Holy Innocents' Cemetery Paris The earth of the city's largest cemetery was said to devour a body in nine days — and Death danced with pope, emperor and king on its wall.
• ⚰️ Montparnasse Cemetery Paris In the winter of 1848 the graves were found broken open each morning, the bodies mutilated. The press named him the Vampire of Montparnasse.
• 👻 Site of the Montfaucon Gibbet Paris Fifty bodies hung in chains on this hill at once, for centuries. On the rue de la Grange-aux-Belles they still rattle in the night wind.
• 👻 Tévennec Lighthouse Bretagne Keeper after keeper fled the lonely rock where voices in the night screamed at them to leave.
• 🏰 Château de Brissac Maine-et-Loire, Brissac The tallest castle in the Loire (seven storeys) — La Dame Verte, "the Green Lady" Charlotte de Brézé, is said to haunt the upper tower. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Mortemer Abbey Normandie On full-moon nights the Empress Matilda appears in the abbey ruins — her gloves reveal whether she brings fortune or death.
• 👻 Château de Blandy-les-Tours Île-de-France Marie d'Harcourt, who leapt from the keep, and her blood-stained tormentor are both said to haunt this fortress. 🛏 Book a night here
• 🏰 Château de Fougeret Nouvelle-Aquitaine Called the most haunted castle in France, its owners reckon a dozen invisible residents share the house. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Château de Machecoul Pays de la Loire Cries are said to rise from the ruins by the Falleron at night — Gilles de Rais, the model for Bluebeard, held court in this castle.
• 👻 Château de Montségur Occitanie On the rock where 200 Cathars burned, the lady Esclarmonde is said to weep for her people on stormy nights.
• 🏰 Château de Puymartin Nouvelle-Aquitaine Thérèse de Saint-Clar was locked in the north tower for fifteen years — at midnight she walks there still. 🛏 Book a night here
• 🏰 Château de Trécesson Bretagne The white bride buried alive in the castle grounds is still said to appear by Trécesson's moat. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Gévaudan (Saugues) Auvergne Around Saugues the Beast of Gévaudan raged in the 1760s – a monster that killed up to a hundred people and was never explained.
• 🏗️ 1bis Rue de Bièvre Paris The landlord chased the fortune teller out with his dog. The dog died that evening, the landlord soon after — and the lot is still empty.
• 👻 1 Avenue Frochot Paris A chambermaid was beaten to death with a poker on the stairs. The murder was never solved — and the shrill screams never explained.
• ⛪ Basilica of Saint-Denis Paris The bishop was beheaded up on Montmartre, picked up his own head and walked — and did not stop until here, six kilometres to the north.
• 🏰 Château de Rambouillet and the Headless Coachman Paris In 1770 a wealthy burgher looked up at the box and saw his coachman beheaded — hands still gripping the reins as the carriage rolled on. 🛏 Book a night here
• ⚔️ The Conciergerie Paris In the cell where the queen awaited the scaffold, a woman in white is said to sit perfectly still — and dissolve the moment anyone approaches.
• 👻 Site of the Château de Vauvert Paris A green monster with a white beard and a club haunted the abandoned castle — hence the French phrase for being sent to the devil's own.
• 🏯 Manoir Pavlovich, Pomponne Paris The doctor watched his wife waste away here — and ever since, every couple who moved into the old manor is said to meet the same fate.
• 👻 Parc Montsouris Paris The giant brigand Isauré was beheaded in the 9th century and buried in this slope. Residents speak of night screams from nothing living.
• 👻 Rue Chanoinesse Paris The barber shaved his last customer, the neighbour baked the pies — and white figures still glide across these cobbles on winter nights.
• 👻 Square du Vert-Galant, Pyre of Jacques de Molay Paris From the flames the last Grand Master of the Templars summoned pope and king before God's court within a year — both were dead by December.
• 👻 Tomb of Philibert Aspairt, Quarries of Paris Paris The doorkeeper went down into the quarries in 1793 and never came up. Eleven years later his body was found — but he never left the galleries.
• 👻 Site of the Tour de Nesle Paris From the top of the tower Marguerite de Bourgogne beckoned down the night's lovers. By dawn they floated past the Louvre, sewn into sacks.
• 👻 Cideville Parsonage Normandie A shepherd's curse set the parsonage thundering with hammer blows in 1850 — a court ruled the phenomena were never explained.
• 👻 Yeun Elez Bretagne In Breton belief, the peat bogs near Brennilis concealed the very gateway to hell.
• 👻 Bay of the Dead (Baie des Trépassés) Bretagne In the Bay of the Dead, the souls of the drowned await the night boat that will carry them to the other side.
• 🏰 Château d'Esquelbecq Hauts-de-France The lady with the little dog is still said to walk the Flemish castle's halls after dying in the flames. 🛏 Book a night here
• ⚔️ Château d'If Provence In the island prison off Marseille, the spirit of the sorcerer Alberto del Campo is said to answer those who call at his death cell.
• 🏰 Château de Chantilly Picardie Louise de Budos, who died mysteriously in 1598, is said to appear as Chantilly's white lady, an omen of death. 🛏 Book a night here
• 🏰 Château de Châteaubriant Pays de la Loire Every October 16 at midnight, Françoise de Foix is said to return in a ghostly procession through the castle. 🛏 Book a night here
• 🏰 Château de Combourg Bretagne A count with a wooden leg is said to stump up the tower staircase at night, followed by his black cat. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Château de Culan Berry At this medieval fortress in Berry, the armoured ghost of Joan of Arc was reportedly seen for over a century. 🛏 Book a night here
• 🗡️ Château de Joux Franche-Comté Berthe de Joux, locked for ten years in a cell where she could neither stand nor lie straight, is said to weep in the fortress still. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Château de Lacoste Provence In the Marquis de Sade's half-ruined castle in the Luberon, flickering lights and a lingering presence are still reported.
• 👻 Château de Prény Lorraine The black knight Milon de Vandières, defender of the castle in 1286, is said to keep watch over the ruins of Prény.
• 👻 Château de Puilaurens Occitanie On the dizzying ramparts of this Cathar castle, Blanche de Bourbon, the murdered child queen, is said to walk on moonlit nights.
• 🏰 Château de Veauce Auvergne The servant girl Lucie starved to death in the clock tower — and became one of France's most famous ghosts. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Haut-Kœnigsbourg Castle Alsace On New Year's Eve the white lady circles the castle three times before climbing the keep to gaze out over Alsace. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Pflixbourg Castle Alsace Countess Stéphanie de Ferrette still mourns her lost loved ones in the ruin — a harmless but inconsolable white lady.
• 👻 Château Gaillard Normandie Queen Marguerite de Bourgogne, who died imprisoned in Richard the Lionheart's fortress, is said to walk the ruins still.
• ⚰️ Père-Lachaise Cemetery Île-de-France In the world's most visited cemetery, Baroness Stroganoff's white lady allegedly seeks someone who dares keep vigil at her grave for a year.
• 👻 The White Lady of Palavas Occitanie In 1981 four young people picked up a hitchhiker in white — she screamed a warning about the bend, then vanished from the back seat.
• 👻 Gouffre de Padirac Occitanie The 75-metre chasm was known as the Devil's doorway – struck open by Satan's heel in a wager with Saint Martin.
• 🏚️ Île Barbe Lyonnais On the monastery island in the Saône, the ghost of Alix de Theizé reputedly haunted her fellow nuns – an isle linked to druid rites and hidden treasure.
• 🚇 Tuileries Garden Île-de-France The little red man — the butcher Catherine de' Medici had killed — appeared to every ruler whose downfall was near.
• 👻 Lac Pavin Auvergne In the black depths of this round crater lake, a sinful drowned town is said to rest – and casting a stone wakes the bells and the storm.
• 👻 Maison Seube (Toulouse) Occitanie The neo-Gothic house on allées Paul Feuga frightened 1980s Toulouse with unexplained lights in its empty windows.
• 🏯 Manoir de Chastenay Bourgogne At the alchemists' enigmatic manor near Arcy-sur-Cure, a white lady appears at the windows – said to be its Revolution-era mistress.
• 🏚️ Palais Gallien Aquitaine Bordeaux's Roman amphitheatre was for centuries branded the witches' sabbath ground, where Satan himself held court.
• 👻 Palais Garnier Île-de-France Beneath the opera's gilded salons lie the lake and the legend of the Phantom — box 5 still bears his name. 🛏 Book a night here
• ⛪ Église Saint-Merri Paris A horned, two-sexed demon sits above the church door surveying the quarter — and nobody has ever quite wanted to explain why.
• 👻 Jardin du Luxembourg Paris An old man in a black coat invited him home to a concert. The next day it turned out nobody had lived in the flat for fifty years.
• 🏛️ Musée du Louvre and the Ghost Belphegor Paris A Moabite idol is said to have possessed one of the museum's mummies and to walk the Egyptian rooms once the doors have been locked. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Pont Marie Paris Kiss beneath the arch and love lasts forever — but up on the roadway a woman stands weeping for a man who never came to meet her.
• ⛪ Biscornet's Doors, Notre-Dame de Paris Paris The smith fell asleep in despair over an impossible commission and woke to finished ironwork — then the doors refused to open.
• 🚇 Rue Amyot, the Well That Speaks Paris The well on the slope answered clearly when you called down it — and Parisians were sure the voice came from someone buried alive.
• 👻 Rue de la Harpe Paris The father dreamt of red devils celebrating his daughter's wedding to Satan himself — and woke as the harp sign tore off the wall.
• 👻 Rue du Chat-qui-Pêche (Street of the Fishing Cat) Paris A black cat hauled up whole catches with a single paw — until three students drowned it and the alchemist vanished that very same day.
• 👻 Rue Maître-Albert Paris Night walkers in the crooked alley claim to have met the medieval master himself, in full magician's robes, in Notre-Dame's shadow.
• ⛪ Saint-Cloud and the Spectre of Clodoald Paris The king's grandson who chose the cloister over the crown walks the walls at night — sometimes with his grandmother Clotilde beside him.
• ⛪ Church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont Paris The devil blows out the saint's candle with a bellows, the angel relights it — the same struggle, night after night, on Geneviève's hill.
• 👻 Théâtre de la Ville and the Rue de la Vieille-Lanterne Paris The poet was found hanged in the dark alley the theatre was built over — and is still said to step onto the stage to distract the actors. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Tour Saint-Jacques Paris Beneath the tower lay the alchemist's grave. When it was opened there was no body — only the stories of the man who had cheated death.
• 👻 Petit Trianon Île-de-France In 1901 two English academics claimed a garden stroll at Trianon led them straight into Marie-Antoinette's 1789. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Jumièges Abbey Normandie In the abbey ruins by the Seine, the maimed royal sons known as 'les Énervés' are said to drift through the moonlight.
• 🏰 Château de Kerjean Bretagne A veiled young woman has reportedly appeared in the towers of the Renaissance château of Kerjean since the 1800s. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Château de Linchamps Ardennes In the Ardennes forest, the last lady of Linchamps is said to sit spinning through the night on her soundless wheel.
• 👻 Château de Lunéville Lorraine Thirteen fires on the same date across the centuries – at the 'Versailles of Lorraine' they are blamed on the vengeful spirit of court dwarf Nicolas Ferry. 🛏 Book a night here
• 👻 Château des Baux-de-Provence Provence In the rock fortress a golden goat is said to guard an enchanted treasure – and the lords of Baux claimed descent from the Star of Bethlehem.
• 👻 Château du Nideck Alsace By Alsatian legend, the ruined castle above the waterfall housed the last of the giants, whose daughter carried a ploughman home in her apron.
• 🌲 Brocéliande Forest Bretagne In the fabled forest where Merlin sleeps his enchanted sleep, the fairy Morgane lured faithless men into the Valley of No Return.
• 🚇 La Grand'Goule (Poitiers) Poitou In the underground passages by the Clain lurked the dragon Grand'Goule, devouring nuns until Saint Radegund drove it out.
• 👻 Lac d'Aiguebelette Savoie Beneath Savoy's turquoise lake a village is said to rest, drowned as punishment for refusing a beggar shelter.
• 👻 Mont-Saint-Michel Normandie In the bay around the abbey mount, a white-robed figure is said to appear in the fog to warn straying pilgrims.
• 👻 House of Nicolas Flamel Paris The alchemist died in 1418 — but the grave was opened empty, and long after, people swore they had met him strolling calmly in the quarter.
• 🚇 The Well of Love, Rue de la Grande-Truanderie Paris Agnès Hellebick threw herself into the well when her lover betrayed her — and turned it into an altar where lovers swore eternal faith.
• 👻 The Witch's Rock, Montmartre Paris A foreign boulder in the middle of Montmartre — and the old woman next door the local children were convinced was a genuine witch.
• 👻 Pont Valentré Occitanie The master builder of Cahors sold his soul to finish the bridge – then tricked the Devil, who clings to the central tower to this day.

FAQ

How many haunted places are there in France?

Haunted Places lists 82 haunted locations in France, each with its story and GPS coordinates.

What are the most haunted places in France?

Among the most notable in France: Catacombs of Paris, Château de Tiffauges, Site of the Holy Innocents' Cemetery.

Can you stay overnight at haunted places in France?

Yes — 21 of the haunted places in France are hotels or inns you can book for an overnight stay. The rest are public sites you can visit.

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