Les lieux hantés: La dame blanche de Puymartin et le Château de Fougeret

Two pirates and a witch do a podcast episode... no, that's not the start of a bad joke, that's this week's special Halloween episode! Host Alexa and returning guests, Emma and Agnès, learn about haunted French places, swap ghost stories and get spooked at unexpected times. Practise your B1 French listening, comprehension and pronunciation skills, but be warned...after the lights go out, the stories may linger!

Join us on this journey where we practise our French listening skills, enhance our vocabulary and enrich our French cultural knowledge in fun, casual discussions!

Want more practice? Check out the ⁠podcast page on our website⁠! There you'll find a support guide for the lesson and the audio file.

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Objectifs

1. to improve your listening skills & general comprehension
2. to build vocabulary and develop sentence construction
3. to learn unusual facts about France

Niveau

B1 - niveau seuil (intermediate)

Texte

L’histoire dont nous allons parler aujourd’hui se déroule au château de Puymartin près de la ville de Sarlat, en Dordogne. C’est dans ce lieu où vivait Thérèse de Saint-Clar, une jeune châtelaine du XVIe siècle. Un jour, son mari, qui revenait de la guerre, l’a surprise dans les bras de son amant. Pour se venger de son épouse, il l’enferme dans une petite pièce de la tour nord du château et tue son amant. On raconte que la jeune femme serait restée prisonnière dans cette tour jusqu’à sa mort et y aurait été emmurée. Depuis, les propriétaires du château affirment que son fantôme erre encore la nuit dans les couloirs, les escaliers et les chemins de ronde, aux alentours de minuit...

Question 1. Qui le mari de Thérèse a-t-il tué ?

Question 2. Comment Thérèse Saint-Clar est-elle morte ?

Notes

The words highlighted in the text are relative pronouns. They are used to connect two sentences and avoid a repetition:
- qui replaces a noun which is subject
- dont replace a complement introduced with de
- où replace a complement of place or time
This topic is covered in Lesson 24 of Alexa's Complete French Course.

Réponses

Question 1. Il a tué l’amant de Thérèse.

Question 2. Elle a été emmurée dans la tour du château.

Traduction

The story we’re going to tell today takes place at the Château de Puymartin near the town of Sarlat, in the Dordogne. This is where Thérèse de Saint-Clar, a young 16th-century châtelaine, lived. One day, her husband, returning from war, caught her in the arms of her lover. To take revenge on his wife, he locked her in a small room in the castle’s north tower and killed her lover. It is said that the young woman remained imprisoned in that tower until her death and was walled up there. Ever since, the castle’s owners have claimed that her ghost still roams the hallways, staircases, and parapets at night, around midnight...

Question 1. Who did Thérèse’s husband kill? He killed her lover.

Question 2. How did Thérèse Saint-Clar die? She was walled up in the castle’s tower.