In the early 1990's my partner and I and two friends, Sian and Anne went on holiday to the south of France. We stayed in a converted barn in the mountain regions in a tiny town called L'Atronquiere (I think I spelt it correctly!).

Whilst we were there we had several strange occurrences which I will try to retell here.

Throughout the holiday there was hot weather in the day time and the most amazing electrical storms at night. Sometimes they were quite scary, because the lights in the barn would flicker on and off incessantly. Enough to give you the creeps, I think lol.

Anyway, on many occasions during the nights I was aware of a 'presence' in the bedroom. I could hear things moving on the dressing table and also the curtains in the bedroom kept being opened (similar to another experience I have had with an unknown entity!).

I told the others I thought there was a presence in the house and Sian and Anne both said they felt something different there but did not know what it was. I do not know if they were 'just saying this' as some people do.

Well, during one particular bad storm I had what I can only describe as a fitful nightmare and I awoke with a 'freeze-frame' image in my head that the calor gas cylinder in the kitchen was exploding.

I was so worried and agitated about this that I went to the kitchen to check the cylinder and lo and behold the valve was open. If any of us had struck a match nearby it would have exploded!

As I left the kitchen to return to the bedroom I had the sudden feeling that I was being watched and was drawn to the French windows. Placing my face against them I looked through and an image of a mans face flashed into my mind with a terrible sense of foreboding. I knew that if I remained there then I would be face to face with something or someone.

I have never bolted before in my life, but this time I did. I ran into the bedroom and dived under the covers in the safety of the bed!

I don't know if anyone was out there. It was an awful storm and I doubt if anyone would have been there, but my senses are very strong and my intuition seems to be off the scale at times. I trusted my instincts to run, that I would not like what I would see.

Maybe the storm and the old barn had got to me after all, I don't know. Maybe my imagination is too over active. Who knows.

I did not tell the others about this incident, but one of the women said she heard what could only be described as the sound of boots on cobbled stones in the night. So was someone out there?

A few nights later, I awoke in the middle of the night. Dripping with sweat and my senses heightened to screaming point. If you have heard the saying about 'hairs standing up on the back of your neck' then believe it, it actually happens! The hairs on my neck were standing right on end, the most peculiar feeling I have ever felt.

Beside my side of the bed was an old wicker chair which I could touch if I reached out my arm.

I had the intense feeling that if I reached out my arm I would be touching someone else. There was a presence in the room. The feeling was so strong. All my hairs were on end now, despite being in a warm room, on a hot night with the covers on me, I had goose pimples all over.

In a way I was both intrigued, inquisitive and scared!

I whispered to my partner, nudging with my elbow and feet. I said there was something in the room and to put the light on. I was told me 'not to be so stupid!' I was really scared and kept on. There must have been a note of urgency in my voice and I think my panic was transmitted because my partner eventually turned on the light.

There was nothing and no one on the chair!

The girls upstairs shouted down that they could hear everything and then, I am not kidding you, within 10 seconds of the light being turned on all the electrics in the barn went off.

Sian and Anne were squealing upstairs (as anyone would do!) and my partner shot out of that bed and the bedroom like a Hare out of its burrow. I was screaming 'wait for me' and I was hot on their heels.

We fumbled under the sink for some candles, lighting could them as quickly as we could with the lighter and then proceeded to go to the living room and the stairs.

Believe me, not only was I panicked but so was my partner and so were the girls upstairs!

We went up the stairs to the girls bedrooms. When we got there we found Anne in the same room as Sian, apparently she had shot in there as soon as the lights had gone out.

They told us they could hear me saying there was a presence in the bedroom with us. Sian was very on edge.

I could still feel a presence near me, I just knew it was there, the hairs were still up on the back of my neck. Honestly.

We sat there for a while until everyone was calm and tried to explain the electrics going off as an overload when we all put our lights on at the same time. Quite a plausible explanation, though I don't think any of us girls really believed it. There had been a bad storm earlier that night, so perhaps damp had caused an electrical short, especially as it was an old building.

Anyway, we all had one candle each. We eventually left the girls upstairs and headed back to our own bedroom on the ground floor. Anne shouted night from the landing as she went back to her bedroom, holding the candle in front of her.

I can tell you that candles may provide light but they really are quite spooky in their own right, especially when your senses are already on overload!!! Just imagine the shadows flickering and dancing on the walls, just too creepy at this point in time!

Well, we made it back to our bedroom and got into bed as quickly as we could. My partner was literally shaking and lit up a cigarette, drawing on it quick and hard, with shaky hands.

I tried to say that everything was ok, there was nothing in the bedroom with us. The presence was no longer near me or in the bedroom. I could sense that it was all clear and so I was surprisingly calm. My partners response -  'You scared the shit out of me.'

I repeated it was no longer there with us but they smoked 3 cigarettes straight, one on top of the other!

Eventually we calmed down enough to blow out the candle and snuggle up in the bed. Me, well I managed to get of to sleep almost straight away, I couldn't sense anything in the room now after all, so felt quite safe!

I was the first one to wake up in the morning. The sun was shining brightly through the windows. The curtains were open again. I got up and crept into the kitchen so as not to wake anyone. I felt bad for making so much noise the night before and keeping them all up.

I made a coffee for Sian and Anne and tea for myself and my partner.

Both women were in their own bedrooms still and I went into Sians' room first. She was only just waking up and her first words to me (without me saying anything to her beforehand) were that we had left the presence with her when we left her bedroom the night before. She said she could feel it at the end of her bed for a good part of the night, just kind of standing there.

She continued to relay this to me and then said that it had left her room at about 5:30am. I did not say a word as she told me this, but I knew it was not in her room that morning, I could not feel it there. So saying it left at 5:30am struck as true with me.

When she finished, I told her that when we had returned to our bedroom the night before, I was unperturbed and no longer scared because the presence was not there anymore. 'No, it was with me,' Sian said, 'You brought it up here with you and it stayed with me.'

She sounded slightly disgruntled!

I left Sian to her coffee and made my way into Annes' bedroom. She was sleepy and just waking up as well. I never said anything other that 'Here's your coffee.'

However, Anne spoke to me while she was waking up, kind of all groggy and sleepy. Her words to me were 'Who went downstairs at about 5:30am, they woke me up with their heavy footsteps.'

I told her I had not been upstairs to be able to go downstairs and my partner had not left my side all night. Sian had not left her bedroom either. So it was none of us. I told Anne what Sian had just told me.

Well, what a commotion we girls made with all these goings on. I mean, can you imagine the series of events and also the evidence that an 'entity' of some form was with us. What evidence have we? Well, imagine 4 people in 3 different rooms with the following information recounted for you.

One - I sense an entity
Two - Electrics fail within 10 seconds of the lights going on
Three - I sense the entity has followed us upstairs, but don't tell the others.
Four - I sense it is no longer in our bedroom when we return
Five - Sian says independently that it was in her room all night and we left it there!
Six - Sian says it left around 5:30am
Seven - Anne says independently that she heard footsteps going downstairs at around 5:30am
Eight - None of us were up at 5:30am
So who or what was it?

We tackled the owners of the barn (who lived in an old farmhouse nearby) and the wife started telling us that some other holiday makers had said a similar thing once, before the partner pooh poohed the idea and they both literally clammed up on us!

So what do you think? Was it just pure coincidence yet again or was there actually something there with us?

The End

Post-Note - It may be nothing, but during the process of me writing this true story, the electrics in the room I was sitting in kept flicking on and off. Not once or twice, but I counted 9 times in all. The funny thing is, the lights in this room have never flickered before and not since as far as I am aware! Probably coincidence, but hey, you just never know, do you!!!

See also - Unexplained light