Scary Experience In Brittany

My partner and I have just returned from a week's holiday in a gite in a rather remote part of Brittany. The property was next to a railway line, being the former home of a signalman. Although the gite was cute to look at and reasonably comfortable, I felt rather ill at ease when we first arrived, particularly when in the main bedroom.

All was fairly quiet at first, but by the second or third night, we were hearing noises almost constantly, most of them extremely loud. We racked our brains for a logical explanation for these noises as we obviously did not want to believe that the gite was haunted. However, on the penultimate night of our stay, in the early hours, we were woken by yet another loud noise, which appeared to come from the wall behind our heads. As I was trying to come to terms with yet another bang, and still wide awake, I felt my left arm being lifted (I felt as if my wrist was being gripped by a ghostly 'hand').

At this point I was angry as well as terrified and pulled the duvet around me to keep my arms covered, to prevent it touching me again. This was the last incident during our stay, there being no activity on the final night, but it has certainly left an impression on me!

The owners of the gite had kept visitors' books and diaries going back to 1990 and one of the visitors (but only one) had left a comment referring to 'things that go bump in the night', so we evidently weren't the only people to have experienced paranormal activity but I do wonder why they chose us.

I imagine the 'ghost' was probably one of the signalmen who used to live in the cottage, and was resentful of the constant stream of visitors to the property.

Coincidentally, on two occasions we were aware of someone shuffling backwards and forwards past the cottage over the level crossing and then disappearing into nowhere. When we looked out, it turned out to be an extremely old looking man with a walking stick, apparently walking up and down for exercise. I did think he might have been the 'ghost' for a day or two but he was probably a living person who lived in one of the two properties along the lane, although we never actually saw him go in! By the way, one of the two properties in question was a deserted shell of a house!

Although I have always been very interested in the paranormal, this was my first encounter with what I believe to have been a ghost and I am in no hurry to repeat the experience. I left the gite at the end of our holiday with a huge sigh of relief!