In the séance room of the Haunted Mortuary
Destination: New Orleans
Venue: The Haunted Mortuary, aka Mansion Mystére
I promised I would tell you the spookiest place I had ever visited and here it is.
When I was in New Orleans earlier this year, I visited the 1872 Mystére Mansion, “at the very dead end of Canal Street“, that has been certified haunted by 7 ghosts. Would a ghost hunter lie to you?
And if you don’t believe the professionals, you can attend some training and be set loose in three stories of the Mystére Mansion which once was a funeral home. It must be haunted. It sits right on the edge of a cemetery, and everyone knows how hard it is to keep the dead in their place in New Orleans. Your ghost hunting training includes seeing videos from the cameras posted in corners of all the rooms and running all night to capture ghostly excursions.
If an hours worth of ghost hunting does not sate your appetite for the spectral, you can even book a room. Only one suite available, and no one guarantees a good night’s sleep.
Ghostly Bride at the Mansion Mystere
Would you believe that brides book the haunted mansion for their weddings? Perhaps they have not seen the mannequin upstairs representing the ghostly bride–of Frankenstein? Will they have the bridal dinner around the séance table, surrounded by skeletons and weird symbolic art works?
This time of year, the mansion becomes The Mortuary –the biggest, scariest, haunted house in Louisiana. I dare you to go through the Mortuary and then return to stay overnight at the Mansion. And they invite you to spend the night on Halloween Eve. Good luck. You may need it.
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And now a few scary posts from my friends, starting with a family outing and homemade treats for Halloween. (Remember when we actually knew our neighbors and could accept home-baked cookies for the Trick or Treat TREAT?)
A Halloween outing to Legoland from The Baby Bonding Book for Dads website.
Ghoulishly gluten-free cupcakes from over at Wasabimon.
Munch those cookies while watching a scary film recommended by Film Gecko.
Five places to scare your family from Jen Miner at Fodors.com
Is your Halloween distinctly American? Here’s a comparison with Ireland from Wander Mom.
Caught on the Web points us to a site with really yucky pumpkins.
If you have not done your Halloween reading yet, here’s A Traveler’s Library suggestions for some ghostly guide books.
I know I must have missed some, so feel free to recommend your favorite reading for Halloween in the comment section below. (Back to semi-normal with France on Friday tomorrow, but scary stuff continues on Tuesday next week as I interview the author of Decoding The Lost Symbol. Will the world end on December 12, 2012? Does a secret order rule Washington D.C.? Tune in Tuesday.)
Photos by Vera Marie Badertscher. All rights reserved.
PDF Tags: Halloween, Haunted Mortuary, Mansion Mystere, New Orleans
What a fun round-up you’ve put together! And I love your descriptions of the scary stuff in N.Orleans – that’s the stuff nightmares are made of…
Thank you for the link!
BTW, I love the little thing you have running on your comments that picks up the last post from my blog. What is it?
Such a fun post! Makes me want to go back to New Orleans–it’s been way too long.
I think New Orleans is kind of a spooky place anyway — well, it was when I was there a few weeks ago. Perhaps because it was so humid and misty and there was this fog that covered a lot of the sky, making it dark during the day… I totally want to check out la maison mystere after reading about it here.
Twitter: chezsven
says:
Thanks for these scary posts. The former plumbers, turned ghost hunters who have their own show, are on Larry King Friday night, I believe. What I want to know is has anyone seen a real ghost and how do you get a place “certified” as having a ghost?
Twitter: pen4hire
says:
I did not have the space to fully explain Mansion Mystere, but if you look at their site, you can see the elaborate machinery they have in place to catch images of ghosts. “Certified” refers to having a team of ghost experts come and spend time in the house and photograph, measure temperatures, and all that, and say they found a ghost.
Great list, fun post…Happy Halloween!
.-= Meredith Resnick – The Writer’s [Inner] Journey´s last blog ..The 5-Question Interview: Rachel Shukert =-.
Twitter: pen4hire
says:
Thanks, everybody, and I hope you get your favorite candy in your trick or treat basket.
Twitter: mykidseatsquid
says:
I’ve never been to New Orleans, but if I go, I’ll have to visit the mystere mansion–spooooooky!
.-= ReadyMom´s last blog ..THE Chewiest Oatmeal Cookies =-.
Twitter: kerrydexter
says:
Vera,
have you read Barbara Hambly’s Benjamin January books?
.-= Kerry Dexter´s last blog ..Cathie Ryan: Songwriter =-.
Twitter: pen4hire
says:
Kerry: Now you’ve got me looking up Barbara Hambly. (Because the answer is no, I haven’t read them. How do you have time to read so much?)
Twitter: pen4hire
says:
Oh, Yes, A Free Man of Color came up when I was doing an article on New Orleans books several years ago, I just had forgotten all about it–well, if I haven’t worn out people’s tolerance for New Orleans, I’ll add that one to the list.