Halloween in Seine-Maritime: chills guaranteed!

The Seine-Maritime region is full offantastic stories and mysterious creatures. Goblins, ghosts, headless horsemen, dragons and other spirits still haunt some of the region’s mythical places…

The Maison des Croyances et Traditions du terroir, in Saint-Pierre-en-Port, immerses you in these spooky tales handed down from generation to generation.

Here are three legends to tell on Halloween night to make your friends and family shudder:

• Le lutin d’Aubermesnil-aux-Erables :
  The Aubermesnil miller had a reputation for fraud. All his colleagues suffered from the same reputation, but the Aubermesnil miller also had a nasty habit of being caught out! A leprechaun by the name of Capet Touzé was in the habit of dispensing justice: punishing the wicked and rewarding the good. When he learned of the evil tendencies of the Aubermesnil miller, he came to the mill on several occasions and beat the owner with stick after stick. The poor swindler was beaten, more often than not. Eventually, he had to give up the trade, the mill and the village. But Capet Touzé had never shown his face, nor boasted of the punishments he administered. So no one understood what was happening to the miller, and everyone refused to take over from him. The mill’s wings stopped forever, brambles invaded the cogs and the peasants of Aubermesnil went to grind their grain in Foucarmont or Saint Léger.
• The treasures of the Gruchet-le-Valasse forest:
  The forest contains numerous pits and stones that tradition assures us are Druidic. There are many legends about treasures buried by monks at Val-Cerisier, guarded by Dames Blanches, headless horsemen and, above all, werewolves. *
• La roche du Diable in Le Tréport:
  On the cliffs of Le Tréport was a black rock, with fantastic reflections, which for centuries remained suspended miraculously above the sea. The locals called it “the Devil’s Rock”. They recounted that during the equinoxes, when the winds were raging and the sea was hitting the bottom of the cliff, a red flame would rise from the rock at night… Two shadows loomed against a brilliant background, and the air resounded with their hideous laughter. They were the souls of Messire Jean de Mièvre and Dame Ida Valdor de Brégues, who came here every year to make amends. Around the year 1000, Ida had taken the veil in the abbey next to Messire Jean’s lands, but the latter succeeded in diverting her from her duties. That very evening, lightning struck the lovers. This stone has now fallen to the beach. *

*Texts from “Légendes, croyances, traditions et curiosités de Seine-Maritime” by Anne Marchand.