The Transportation Terrors
France's extensive transportation networks—from TGV lines to autoroutes—generate mythology of movement and transition.
The A10 Time Slip
The Autoroute A10 between Paris and Bordeaux hosts France's most documented time anomaly. Drivers report: - Journey times impossibly short or long - Service stations that don't exist on maps - Radio playing news from wrong years - Most commonly, arriving with no memory of the drive
The phenomenon clusters around Kilometre 135: - Multiple accidents with drivers claiming "the road changed" - Surveillance footage showing vehicles that disappear - Most bizarre, cars photographed in two places simultaneously
Jean-Claude Bertrand, truck driver, 2020: "I've driven that stretch hundreds of times. That night, I stopped at a service station I knew well. Everything was wrong—old pumps, attendants in 1960s uniforms. I fled. When I looked back, just empty field. My fuel gauge showed I'd somehow gained diesel."
The Ghost TGV
High-speed rail created high-speed hauntings. The Ghost TGV allegedly: - Appears on tracks minutes before accidents - Runs routes discontinued decades ago - Carries passengers from different eras - Most identifying, glows with blue-white light
SNCF officially denies it while maintaining protocols: - Unexplained sightings require immediate track closure - Engineers report "phantom signals" in specific sectors - Most telling, certain routes have unofficial speed restrictions after midnight
The Vanishing Hitchhikers of the Périphérique
Paris's ring road hosts updated versions of classic vanishing hitchhiker tales: - Young people in modern dress who speak archaic French - Passengers who direct drivers to addresses that no longer exist - Most commonly, hitchhikers who warn of accidents then vanish
The 2021 surge included: - Multiple independent reports of the same individuals - Dashcam footage showing empty seats where drivers saw passengers - Most intriguing, hitchhikers who leave physical evidence—but from wrong decades