Monday, 27 October 2025
The Lost Skull Mask
L'automne sur le Plateau
Sunday, 26 October 2025
The Jack O'Lantern and the Goose
St-Ambroise automnale
Saturday, 25 October 2025
All Hallows Graveyard
Tarte aux bleuets (authentique)
Jack O'Lantorch
Le portico et les chauves-souris
Friday, 24 October 2025
About the Great Pumpkin
I thought I would give my readers something heartwarming for today's countdown to Halloween. I found on YouTube this video giving quite a lot of information about It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.It tells you a few trivial facts, but also explains why it became such beloved Halloween classic for children and why it is so compelling, even today. I, of course, really love it.
"Le fantôme citrouille"
Thursday, 23 October 2025
The Grim Raker
Jack au cimetière, au crépuscule
Wednesday, 22 October 2025
Dracula and the Spook
Le clown sinistre
Tuesday, 21 October 2025
Bier-Balk and Corpse-Gate
One of the traditions during my countdown to Halloween is the reading of Edith Nesbit's Man-Size in Marble, a ghost story set on Halloween night. Since I first read it in The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories back in 2006 (I know, a long time ago), I have been fascinated by it. Now, I have at least four books with the story in it, most of them anthologies. And I have also been reading a good deal of critical analysis of the story. Recently, I watched its adaptation on BBC, stupidly retitled Woman of Stone, which was absolutely rubbish (no but seriously, it was bad and they just didn't get it). But I digress. From Man-Size in Marble, I also learned two terms that should be in the vocabulary of every fan of Halloween and Gothic horror: bier-balk and corpse-gate. A bier-balk or bierbalk is a path across a road to a church, sometimes across a field, taken by the funeral march. A corpse-gate, or lychgate (which is a way cooler and sinister sounding term) is the roof under which you put a corpse before the arrival of the clergyman. I often see lychgates near churches here in England. I will see them in a different light from now on, and will try to find bierbalks nearby too. And I hope one day to visit in a sort of Halloween pilgrimage the village of Brenzett, which inspired Edith Nesbit to write this most excellent ghost story and where the real ghostly statues are. Be that as it may, bier-balk and corpse-gate are your words of the day.
Cambriolage au Louvre
Je laisse mes chroniques habituelles le temps d'un billet afin de bloguer sur une nouvelle criminelle qui me fascine un peu: je parle bien entendu du vol de bijoux au Louvre. Au moment où j'écris ces lignes, l'enquête suit encore son cours et personne n'a été appréhendé. Quand même, c'est le genre de crime que l'on croit bon pour les polars. Je crois que ce sera la source d'inspiration pour nombre d'entre eux. Enfin bref, je sais que c'est pas drôle ce qui arrive, que c'est même catastrophique, mais ça ne m'empêche pas d'être fasciné par la nouvelle.
Reese's for Halloween
Monday, 20 October 2025
The White Lady of Hohensalzburg Fortress
L'Halloween chez Première Moisson
Sunday, 19 October 2025
Halloween in Vienna
Danse Macabre
Saturday, 18 October 2025
Zombie Siege
Passer l'Halloween aux Bouquinistes
Friday, 17 October 2025
Fear the Witch
Les provisions pour l'Halloween
Thursday, 16 October 2025
Time at the pumpkin patch
Zombie
La Baie en automne
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
More Halloween Tea
Vision d'épouvante
Tuesday, 14 October 2025
Cimetière
Halloween Folklore
Fantôme
Monday, 13 October 2025
Why read Gibbet Hill for Halloween
I have blogged last Saturday about horror stories of Bram Stoker, recomending that you read them this year for Halloween. I mentioned the recently rediscovered Gibbet Hill. This Halloween 2025 has been for me, so far, the year of Gibbet Hill. Because it is the perfect read for Halloween, for many, many, many reasons, which I have listed here:
- It's set in mid-October, so it's already both autumnal and of course fittingly in the Halloween season.
- The autumn atmosphere is brilliantly rendered by Stoker.
- Gibbet Hill is a real place in Surrey, for added authenticity. Also, you can actually visit it, if you live in England, for a sort of scary pilgrimage.
- It has snakes in it. Seriously, snakes deserves a more prominent place among Halloween critters.
- It features a strange and mysterious cult, practiced by two Indian girls and a blond boy. It's not merely a ghost story witha single antagonist, Stoker gives us a glimpse of something larger scale, a threat to civilisation. He will develop this in Dracula, of course, see this post from 2024.
- In the end, nothing is fully explained or rationalised, which adds to the unease.
- There's just something about an old ghost story set in late XIXth century.
So yes, if you have to read one horror story this Halloween, it has to be Gibbet Hill.
"Merci pour les raisins"
Au Qu.bec, c'est le lundi de l'Action de grâce. Tradition oblige, je partage cette chanson de de La fin du monde est à 7 heures. C'est de circonstances aujourd'hui:
Sunday, 12 October 2025
A Fallen Angel
La Faucheuse ou un fantôme?
Saturday, 11 October 2025
All Souls Night by Edith Wharton
Here is the reading of a poem by Edith Wharton, set on Halloween night. Not to be confused with a short story of the same writer, with the same name. which I have blogged about here. Nevertheless, the poem is also a sort of ghost story (a ghost poem?) and it is quite eerie in its own right, if not a tad scary. Tell me if you shiver listening to it.
Pâté à la truite
Bram Stoker for Halloween
For tonight's countdown to Halloween reading suggestion, this book, a small collection of short stories by Bram Stoker. Not for The Burial of the Rats of the title, which is maybe not purely a horror story (although since I'm scared of rats, it's pretty much one for me), but for the other ones: The Squaw, The Judge's House, Dracula's Guest (well of course) and Gibbet Hill. The latter being the recently rediscovered ghost story and worth the purchase in itself. It's a genuinely scary ghost story, with creepy, cruel children and snakes, fittingly set in mid-October. I will blog more about it later in the month, but otherwise, the other stories, particularly The Judge's House and Dracula's Guest, are really great Halloween reads. You get the ghost of a hanging judge, more rats, a vengeful cat, weird cults, creepy children, an iron maiden and, well of course, vampires. My happy discovery this year, even though I read them all same one. And you can't go wrong with Stoker.











































