Chapter 1: Tournon-sur-Rhône
Once upon a time, perhaps not so long ago, there grew a mysterious forest in the southeast of France. No one had ever really been able to measure it - though you could ride around it, you could never cross through it and come out safe on the other side. Indeed, you could not come out at all. More people than anyone remembered had been lost in that forest over the years. People called it la Forêt du Dauphin; rumor had it that it had once been the hunting grounds of the crown prince of France. But the kings and queens and princes were long gone now, their heads fallen from their shoulders, their blood spilled in the streets; and new men ruled in France. They sent surveyors and map makers throughout their republic. Only the forest remained unmapped, unsurveyed, and unremarked. Ages passed; satellites could not penetrate the tree cover to reveal what lay within, and GPS mysteriously failed within miles of the place. Roads diverted around it; they called it a "national preserve," and under that title it remained untouched and untouchable, the last blank space on the map where one might write "here there be monsters."
--- the charming scene outside their B&B window: cobblestone streets, window boxes filled with flowers, the occasional tiny car or bicycle passing by, the groups of people chattering away in (French) language --
And it's so fascinating! It's a book of local legends and superstitions, that kind of thing. Did you know there's a forest not five miles away that's supposedly haunted? They call it the Dauphin's forest because it was apparently the hunting grounds of the Prince way back in medieval times. And get this, dad: there's historical evidence that there used to be a château in the middle of it. Like, an actual medieval mansion that he used to house his whole retinue when he went hunting. Can you imagine? A ruined château in the middle of a haunted forest? Doesn't that just make you want to go look for it?
I'd be more interested in knowing why it's haunted.
It doesn't really say. There's just all kinds of stories of people going missing there. Apparently it's a kind of Bermuda Triangle of forests. Oh, and guess what? The Dauphin Francis, son of Francis the First, was supposedly poisoned and died in that château! They blamed his secretary, Count Sebastiano, and he was executed for it, but now people think the prince probably just died of pneumonia. He had been imprisoned as a child…
I'd be more interested in knowing why it's haunted.
It doesn't really say. There's just all kinds of stories of people going missing there. Apparently it's a kind of Bermuda Triangle of forests. Oh, and guess what? The Dauphin Francis, son of Francis the First, was supposedly poisoned and died in that château! They blamed his secretary, Count Sebastiano, and he was executed for it, but now people think the prince probably just died of pneumonia. He had been imprisoned as a child…
--- a glorious summer day in the French countryside?
at the charming scene outside, encompassing the flower boxes, bicycles, hum of conversations at cafés with striped awnings…
