The Ghosts of Paris: A Novel

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The search for a missing husband forces investigator and former war reporter Billie Walker to face the ghosts of her own painful past, and sets her on a collision course with an underground network of Nazis ... Four stations have been moved during the construction and extension of lines: [4] Remainders of the old station Victor Hugo. Best Designed Non-Fiction Book Award, for The Fictional Woman designed by Tara Moss and Matt Stanton Billie is smart and resourceful and truly ahead of her time…Tara Moss does her research and her descriptions of a post-war London and Paris ring true.” —Woman Around Town on The Ghosts of Paris

If you want to make the most of your visit and get the real story of the celebrities buried there, this is hands down the best tour to take. You’ll find the entrance to the tunnels in the 14th arrondissement. Go down a spiralling staircase, and welcome to spooksville. Moss is a dual Australian/Canadian citizen, and divides her time between NSW and Vancouver with her husband and daughter. Visit her at taramoss.com

There was even a club called the Cabaret d’Enfer, opened in the nineteenth century and closed sometime in the mid-twentieth, that stood on Boulevard de Clichy. Themed around hell and esotericism, it showed a romantic attraction to the occult among Parisians at the time. Archival images of the now-defunct Cabaret d’enfer, Pigalle, Paris This is the second book in the historical fiction mystery series featuring the sassy and smart Private Investigator from 'down under', Billie Walker. I enjoyed getting reacquainted with Billie and in this latest book, she heads to post-WWII Europe in search of a missing husband and gets unexpected information about her own past. Postwar Sydney, London, and Paris come alive in Moss’s intense sequel to The War Widow …A richly detailed historical mystery that spotlights social issues like postwar persecution of LGBTQ communities in both Sydney and Paris. Readers of Sulari Gentill’s “Rowland Sinclair” mysteries, set in interwar Sydney, will appreciate Moss’s riveting series.” —Library Review (STARRED) Is It Right:• If you are a fan of horror stories and dark mysteries, you will enjoy partaking in the guided tour. The tour reveals murders, occult mysteries and other chilling facts that used to be an everyday occurrence in Paris in the past.

Referencing the Commune was an obvious choice, says Pascal, one of the club’s founders, for whom the revolution of 1871 remains highly relevant at a time of widespread political disaffection. Our nocturnal ghost and legends tour takes you down dark, winding alleyways – the better to soak up the atmosphere of mystery and imagine Paris in very different times. At the beautiful, romantic Square du Vert-Galant - created in honor of Henry IV and his mistresses and recently declared an “Espace vert ecologique” (an ecological green space) – your guide will describe a different scene, when the last Knights’ Templar was burned at the stake here. Yet look more closely, and you’ll see a different picture. Especially outside Paris, tales of French ghosts and uncanny, or even terrifying, hauntings still thrive in certain corners of local culture. Woodcut depicting Étienne-Gaspard Robert’s Phantasmagoria show , late 18th century The Murdered Monks and Dame Blanche (White-Clad Lady) of Mortemer Abbey, Normandy The Abbaye de Mortemer in Normandy is reputed to be one of France’s most haunted places, and is allegedly stalked by several French ghosts. Image: Public domain Anyone who’s roamed the streets of Pigalle, in Paris, after dark can easily concur that it has something seedy, if not downright creepy, about it. Pigalle has long been a quartier of ill repute: the red light district where bawdy clubs like the Moulin Rouge and far more x-rated counterparts continue to thrive; where a museum dedicated to eroticism in myriad forms once stood (sadly, it closed in 2016), and quiet, dark alleyways abound, chaotically melding into busy boulevards. There’s something– well, dark about the place.

Once in England, having endured a three-day flight in an ex-Lancaster bomber, and gained scant information from Australia House and those people Vera recommended they see, Billie and Sam head to Paris. What they do learn paints a very different man to the one Vera describes and, in Paris, the opinion of Billie’s former Resistance colleague turns their search in a new direction. Spirited…thoroughly researched and anchored by the spunky, sympathetic heroine at its heart…Readers will finish the book clamoring for Billie’s next case.” — Booklist on The War Widow The fact that the Commune was crushed by a nascent republic – the Third Republic, still France’s longest lasting – makes it an awkward fit for the historical narrative established by France’s successive republican regimes, says historian Ludivine Bantigny. “In essence, there were two forms of Republic that faced each other,” she explains. “And one crushed or even exterminated the other.”

Exactly a century and a half separate the two photographs merged in Fred Furgol’s “Barricade de Ménilmontant”, one of a series of works the local artist has dedicated to the Paris Commune of 1871. At once incongruous and eerily seamless, the juxtaposition underscores the enduring legacy of an extraordinary political experiment that was ruthlessly crushed, demonised and then erased from public consciousness. Now Vera Montgomery, a wealthy women has asked Billie and her assistant Sam to go to Europe to look for her husband. He disappeared two years ago on a work trip to London and Paris with a post war exhibition promoting Australia. Now she wants to know if he is dead or has deserted her, in which case she wants a divorce so she can move on with her life. Though the catacombs run for around 200 miles under Paris, you’ll only get to see a small part of that. However, as a result of the planning for the expansion, which was not completed until the 1990s, the complexity and the cost of an under-river crossing in this area was judged to be too prohibitive to complete. Instead, the crossing of the Seine was achieved by passing over the pont de Neuilly, and not in a tunnel as had previously been planned. Thus, the two areas reserved for these stations are not serviced and remain accessible only via a trap door five floors below ground level in an underground parking lot. The current line was realized in part by the number of lanes on the A14 autoroute, which were reduced to 2×2 instead of 3×3, as had previously been planned. [10] Learn about violence, diseases, mass murders and occult events that used to be a part of an ordinary day in the French capital.You’ll have stories that’ll be the hit of any dinner party. Paris by day is a dream, but Paris by night? An unforgettable mystery waiting to be discovered. Don’t miss out! Either way, Leroux immortalised the Phantom in his novel, though it’s less supernatural than we might like! 2. The Tuileries Hitman It was fascinating to learn about life after the war, not only in Sydney but in Paris and London. Things that we take for granted these days were just not options in 1947. For Billie, as a woman it was even harder. Being a woman who worked and didn't take no for an answer. Later, after the French government made Tevennec a two-man lighthouse, they began recruiting married couples to tend it– but received few applications. The couples that did move in are said to have suffered untimely and tragic deaths, including a family with three children and a cow. Sometimes clad in green (she then becomes La Dame Verte, of course), the apparition is said to be the restive spirit of Charlotte de Valois, the illegitimate child of King Charles of France.