Reflections on France (part 2): Early Morning Apparitions

During the last several weeks of the INSEAD exchange I was working on an extracurricular project with three MBAs (a business model competition sponsored by L'Oréal, in which our team placed 3rd out of an initial pool of nearly 15,000 teams globally!) In the final days before the competition we logged long hours while our normal class schedule required us to meet very early and/or very late. It was on one such early, misty morning I experienced something that genuinely alarmed and affected me.

The walk from my house to campus was about 25 minutes and took me through one of the oldest neighborhoods in Fontainebleau, an area of narrow, cobblestoned pedestrian streets. It was probably 6:30am, none of the stores were open and the streets were completely deserted. I walked alone, looking at the cobblestones a few paces ahead and mentally preparing for the tasks soon to be undertaken. As I continued I somewhat absently noticed there was a couple walking in the other direction about 10 meters ahead, coming toward me through the light fog. Without paying close attention it appeared to be a middle aged man about my height and a female companion, either a girl or shorter woman. They were walking arm-in-arm and were both dressed in muted earth tone clothing. As they neared I raised my eyes to take a more thorough note of them, and perhaps give a small gesture of greeting to the only other people braving a chilly spring morning. At a half glance they appeared unremarkable in every way...except one.

As my eyes came up to meet them they vanished into thin air. Naturally I was startled and stopped dead in my tracks. Were my eyes playing tricks on me? There was no street or alley they could have disappeared down; all the store fronts remained shuttered and locked. Everything remained perfectly quiet. Quickly looking all around I confirmed there was nowhere they could have gone. They had simply disappeared! And that wasn't all. At the very instant I witnessed it a strong chill ran through my body, the hair on the back of my neck stood up, and the temperature seemed to drop 10º. I said something out loud, probably along the lines of, "what the f*#@? that was weird!", turned, and continued on my way.