For those of you who don’t keep up with me on social media, I am now in France. I have been since Thursday, October 27th. Before I left the U.S., I was saddened by the thought that this year I would miss Halloween. Although I am not an extreme Halloween fanatic (Christmas is more of my time to shine), I do enjoy spending time watching scary movies and specials all month, eating candy (though chocolate is preferred, of course), and planning out my costume for parties which are sometimes hosted by me. I thought I would miss out on all of this.
Then, I was asked by my workaday host in France, who is an American, if I could come a little earlier than originally planned. The reason being November first would be hectic and she could use my help with her annual haunted house. Turns out Halloween and trick or treating and scare tactics are all activities in France. This was great news for me because it meant I wouldn’t be missing out on Halloween after all.
After a two hour train ride from Barcelona to Narbonne, France and another ten minute train to Lezignan-Aude, I was picked up by my second workaday host on this trip. We drove about ten minutes to the village I have now called home for almost two weeks…Wow, time has passed by fast.
After settling in a bit, we got to work immediately. There were four days until Halloween night and all of them were spent working hard to make the haunted house.
Countless staples were used to hang up sheets which became the walls of a passageway. Tacks were punched into walls to hold the bundles of stuffing that became the creepy spiderweb walkway. And many hands were poked, pinched, and painted accidentally to create the best haunted house I have ever seen.
During the haunted house, I was a “roamer,” making sure things were going smoothly. So it was only fitting that I dress up as a creepy killer who roams the streets in pursuit of his victims. This was the first year in a long time that I wasn’t showing a little skin on Halloween. As many know, Halloween in the U.S. for most girls is a chance to be a little risqué. I have never gone to extreme, always only showing a little more than usual but not too much. Last year, I painted a skeleton on half of my face and threw on a pair of black skinny jeans and the white corset I had worn the year before.
Never have I been something scary, so sometimes when I spooked someone in the haunted house, their screams also made me jump. I kinda liked being scary, so we’ll see what I decide to do next year.
It was a rather successful haunted house, despite the stress and exhaustion most of us endured, especially the mastermind behind it all, and my host, Natalie. But I will forever hold this Halloween dear to my heart. I get to say, “Oh yeah, I worked on an intense haunted house once…in France.” But not only that, I also got to see how one woman, my host, imagined, led, and created this intense house and how the community came together because of it. I got to see neighbors reach out and help with it in what they could. I got to sit down after the last group of victims attendees was long gone, with those neighbors who had volunteered their time, and eat and speak with them. Well, only a few because I don’t know French. Regardless, to share food with strangers who became friends in less than a week and listen to the laughter and the varied languages that filled the room was incredible. I went in expecting to help set up a cutesy “haunted house,” thinking only the first floor might be used. What I got was the chance to work on the scariest haunted house I’ve ever gone through. Yeah, I helped with it, and I was still scared to go through it. Thank you, Natalie, for such a great experience.
(I wish I had more pictures of the night, but as many things ended up falling or being pulled down, I was busy with that and also didn’t want to take away from the haunted house itself. Michael Myers using an iPhone isn’t very scary.)