The Vanishing Hotel: How A Couple Time Traveled into A French Hotel in 1979

In 1979, a couple time traveled into a French vanishing hotel while on a vacation. Time slips, a popular word for unintentional time travel, have been documented throughout history. However, no one is certain of their origin or whether they can be included as traditional time travel (or whether they are hallucinations, lies, or even hoaxes).

The “Ghosts of Versailles” case from 1901, in which two visitors saw the long-dead Queen Marie Antoinette ambling about the Palace of Versailles, is one of the most well-known instances of time slips.

Another well-known instance of time travel involves an elderly couple from Loch Ness (a location that’s forever etched in infamy for the Loch Ness Monster), who vanished in the middle of the 18th century and then reappeared 100 years later at an area almshouse, before vanishing once more.

Then there are urban legends like the story of Rudolph Fentz, in which a man appeared in Times Square wearing attire from the 19th century and was nearly immediately struck by a car. The strange part is, he fit the profile of a man who vanished 74 years prior. But have there been any more recent instances of time travel? Especially true ones? Well, it appears that there are.

For Decades, Scientists have Toyed With the Possibility of Time Travel, With Many Famous Scientists Saying that It’s Entirely Possible

A Blast from the Past: The Vanishing Hotel

Two couples were traveling through a historic French countryside in 1979 as they made their way to Spain. As it grew increasingly dark, they understood they wouldn’t make it in one stretch and decided to find a place near Montelimar. They chose to detour a little off the major highways and into the deep country because all the motels in the area of the city were already booked.

They soon came to an old road with cobblestones and hand-drawn advertisements advertising a circus on either side. Since it was the first time they had ever seen something like this, the pair remembered it fairly vividly.

They soon saw a hotel that was more like an inn and decided to check in. They soon discovered, though, that the hotel seemed to be stuck in the past. It lacked modern conveniences like elevators and telephones. Instead of standard locks, the doors in the rooms featured wooden fastenings.

The sheets on the bedspread were made of calico, a cheap fabric that had been inactive for decades, and there were no pillows on the beds; instead, there were bolsters. Antique wooden cisterns and pipes constituted the plumbing. But even more outdated were the windows, which just had thick, wooden shutters and no glass.

The couple stayed the night despite the hotel’s oddities because they were too exhausted and worn out to hunt for lodging elsewhere. Their bizarre ordeal, though, was far from the end.

When they walked down for breakfast the following morning, they noticed three otherworldly people eating there: a woman in a long, old-fashioned dress with button boots and a large, jeweled pocketbook who appeared to have just left a ball and two French officers dressed in pre-World War I clothes.

The Picture of a Rumored Tim Traveler Who has been Captured On Camera

These were unexpected enough, but when they went to the register, they received an even bigger shock: the bill was less than a tenth of what they had anticipated.

Even though they thought the hotel was odd, they had a good time and decided to check back in on their way back from Spain. Certainly, they couldn’t beat the prices! The only issue was that they were unable to locate it anymore. The hotel was no longer there, but the cobbled road and vintage circus signs were still there. As for the hotel, it had disappeared from the face of the planet.

Stranger still, when they developed their vacation snaps, the ones they took inside the hotel were gone. There were no blank spots in the negative, even though the images ought to have been in the middle of the roll. It appeared as though the photographs had never been taken and that the hotel had used some paranormal powers to tamper with the camera.

The husband even underwent hypnosis in 1985 to see if he could recover any memories and to attest that he wasn’t lying. His memory was clear, just like his conscience.

Unusual Justification

Even decades after this strange episode, this mystery still draws tens of thousands of amateur detectives each year. Did a hotel travel through time? Are the couples telling the truth? Since incidents like this aren’t supposed to happen in the first place, there hasn’t been a logical explanation for this peculiar incident yet. However, some claim that time slips are an uncommon but natural phenomenon.

So, did the hotel travel back in time? Or was it a well-planned joke to get fame and attention? Though time lapses have been recorded, cases are hotly contested. This means that unless the physicists come up with a groundbreaking discovery, this will remain unsolved for a long time.

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Other Instances of Time Travel

In 1971, a pick-up truck approached a cattle pasture close to Ponca City, Oklahoma, and stopped at the gate. Karl, Mark, and Gordon, who were inside the truck, had been instructed to retrieve a feeder. “We unlocked the gate, which was a barbed wire with no lock, and entered. We went on the property, which was covered with grass so tall that it went up to and over the hood of the truck,” says Karl. They arrived at the feeder by driving their pickup through the grass, then got out.

Karl stated, “We realized the tank was about half filled and too heavy to carry and decided to go and drive around a red barn when we noticed a massive, two-story white house in front of us without any lights.” After explaining their situation to their boss once more, he agreed to drain the tank so they could pick it up the next day.

How True Are The Tales Of Time Travelers? Well, See For yourself!

The following night, they returned. As Karl recalls, “This time we decided to go through the old white big house on the hill and brought our shotguns.”

They witnessed an unbelievable sight.

“It (the house) was no longer there,” says Karl. “We climbed the hill where it formerly stood, and there were no indications of demolition, no foundation, absolutely nothing. The previous night’s events that we all seemed to observe were gone. Over the years, we have spoken with each other, but none of us can even begin to explain this vision.”

The Missing Store

When Frank was out shopping in 1996, he decided to go to HMV to hunt for a CD. While he was strolling by the Post Office, he felt as though he had entered an “oasis of silence”. Then, to his horror, a vintage 1950s-style little box van sped across his path, barely missing him while blasting its horn.

Frank noticed that he was now in the middle of the street and that the sign for the store that had once been Dillons Books now read Cripps. He found upscale women’s handbags and shoes inside, but no books.

When a young woman led Frank inside, he watched in shock as Dillions suddenly appeared within. Frank grabbed the girl’s arm and asked if she had witnessed the same thing while she was still there. She answered, “Yes!” I mistook it for a clothing store. Although it is a bookshop, I was going to take a look around.”

The Bookstore from the Past

A teenage girl named Imogen was involved in an incident in Liverpool when she went shopping to buy baby things for her older sister, who had just given birth. Imogen saw a new Mothercare location had opened on the corner of Lord Street. She walked inside and chose some attractive goods, like pink velour cardigans and bibs with polka dots, all for surprisingly affordable rates.

She attempted to use her credit card to pay, but the staff told her they couldn’t accept it. She went to another store because she didn’t have enough money before heading back home.

Imogen was displeased to learn that her mother didn’t trust her when she informed her about the new Mothercare because she knew the store had closed years earlier and was now a bank. After all, her mother did her banking there. After arguing, the two decided to go back to the location. Sure enough, Mothercare was gone, and in its place was an HSBC branch.

Next, I bet you would love to read the true story behind The Castle With a Pit to Hell, and about The Time The Soviets Drilled Into Hell!