2024
2023
Congratulations! Here you are, at the end of your journey to Gassin, the village of witches… and now vampire-free! You’ll find the answers to the questions below!
If you haven’t started yet: here’s the event presentation sheet with all the info.
And if you want to know more about our hero, click here…
Answers to questions
Step 1: question 1: vampire hunter. The kraken is a sea creature from Scandinavian legends; with its tentacles, it can topple a large ship. Frankenstein’s monster was created by Dr. Frankenstein as part of a scientific experiment. Mephistopheles is one of the seven princes of Hell. His name could come from the Latin mephiticus and mephitis: “pestilential exhalation”, but it’s more likely to come from the Greek: μή (“mḗ”, negation), φῶς (“phōs”, light) and φιλoς (“philos”, magnet), he’s the one who doesn’t like light (see link to step 7). Cujo is a very mean dog invented by American author Stephen King.
Step 2: tool 1: the stake. This is the main weapon of vampire hunters. It’s an ecological weapon, since it’s made of wood and can be reused. In Slavic folklore, ash wood is the preferred material. In the event of a vampire attack, the inhabitants of Freinet, which takes its name from this tree, will have everything they need to defend themselves! In the case below, the stakes are designed to be used with a hammer.
Step 3: question 2: the bat. This animal has been linked to the vampire since Bram Stoker, author of Dracula.
So I noticed the patient’s gaze and followed him, but I couldn’t see anything as he gazed into the moonlit sky, except for a large bat flying silently west.
Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897.
Step 4: question 3: the old cemetery. Until the 19th century, cemeteries were often located in the immediate vicinity of village churches. Later, as in Gassin, they were moved to the outskirts.
Step 5: question 4: abominable. The so-called Abominable Snowman is the Yeti, from Tibetan folklore.
Step 6: tool 2: garlic. Brandishing garlic in the face of a vampire keeps him away. Generally speaking, garlic has always been considered to have magical powers and to fight evil and parasites.
Step 7 : answer 5: photophobia. There are several descriptions of vampires. In the original Dracula, the vampire can walk in daylight, but dreads doing so.
Step 8: tool 3: holy water.
Step 9: tool 4: silver bullet. The legend that a silver bullet can kill a vampire seems to have its origins in southeastern European folklore, originally used to eliminate werewolf-type monsters. In the tale The Two Brothers written by the Grimm brothers, a witch is killed by a silver bullet.
– You can shoot, I’m not afraid of your bullets.
The hunter aimed at her, but the witch was invulnerable to all lead bullets; she laughed every time he touched her, and shouted:
– But you can’t hurt me.
The hunter was cunning: he tore three silver buttons from his jacket and poured them into his rifle, for the witch’s art could do nothing against this metal; and as soon as he released the trigger, she fell from the tree with a loud scream.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, The Two Brothers, translated by E. du Chatenet, 1880.
Step 11: Tool 6: Vervain. The magical powers of this plant appear in the Vampire Diaries series.
Step 12: tool 7: antidote.
Step 13: Answer 7: The Carpathians. The name comes from the Latin, trans-silvam, “beyond the forests”. This is the region where Vladislav III reigned as voivode of Wallachia in the 15th century. At the time, a war was raging between the Ottomans, who were trying to push their occupation of Europe, and the Hungarian Empire. Between the two, lords such as Vlad II, father of Vlad III, tried to hold on to their power. Favoring the Hungarians, Vlad II was put in charge of border surveillance in Transylvania, but he betrayed them and his two sons were raised in the Ottoman Empire. His son can claim power after his father’s death, and his brother is killed by the locals. After a reversal of fortune, Vlad III sided with the Hungarians and took power. His reign was marked by acts of great cruelty, earning him the name Vlad the Impaler(Vlad Țepeș in Romanian). Bram Stoker, the inventor of Dracula, drew on his life and legend to create this character.
La jeunesse de Georges de la Martinière
Introduction
Darion Vem Piltui, a bloodthirsty vampire , has settled in Gassin with his accomplice, Arran Dokzymav. The locals call in Georges de La Martinière, a famous monster hunter. You step in just as Georges needs help hunting down the vampire.
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Prologue. The adventurous Georges de La Martinière
Georges was born at the Château de La Martinière in the Gassin countryside. He spent a happy childhood there, fascinated by everything that surrounded him: nature, animals, the work of men… A lively, intelligent child, he was a delight to his parents, who were unfortunately forced to abandon him due to financial ruin. The Gassin community took him under its wing, and saw in him the future. They contributed so that the now teenager could study. He went to Lyon and then to Switzerland, far from home. His favorite subjects were medicine and history, in which he excelled, as well as foreign languages. This soon enabled him to travel, and he shared his talents as a doctor with others. At every stage of his travels, he immersed himself in local cultures and history. He visited the Americas, faraway Asia, Africa too; in Europe, he lingered in Central Europe and settled in Transylvania several months ago. He has become attached to this region, astonished by the customs of its people. This is where the Gassinois Mail found him.
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Chapter I. A terrified Gassin community
For several weeks now, a vampire has been stirring up trouble in Gassin. No one dares venture into the village alleys after dark, man or beast. Dogs follow their masters home with heads bowed, trembling, eyes scanning their surroundings erratically for fear of horror. Cats no longer go out at night to hunt rats, so afraid are they of being outside at the mercy of the monster. And even in the home, men, dogs and cats sleep with one ear to the fireplace.
During the day, we barely whisper when we talk about his misdeeds: if we talk about him, we’re afraid of attracting bad luck…
-You’ve heard what’s being said,” says Tropez Gauthier, the corkmaker, back from a long trip to his old friend.
-Shut up! He’ll hear you,” replies Ernest Tollon, the local baker. But you should know that all the residents are meeting in the village hall after work, when the bell rings at 5pm. It seems they want to send for Georges de la Martinière. Let’s hope he comes soon…
At the appointed hour, all the villagers gather in the brotherhood hall, and it’s decided: the local boy who’s gone far away, now a teacher who’s seen so much, is called upon to help. The brotherhood’s rector, Siffren Gandolphe, was asked to write the letter and send it immediately. As soon as the decision is made, everyone rushes to get home as quickly as possible… Everyone is afraid of getting caught in the night, and in this month of September, the days are getting shorter…
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Chapter II. At Vila Wilhelmina (Brașov, Transilvania)
–Mail for you, Professor!
–Who are you writing to?” asks Georges de La Martinière to his assistant, the loyal Joseph Lavagne.
-It’sfrom back home in France,” he replies, happy to have news from the country.
–Please read,” asks the professor, immersed in the study of an old grimoire.
–The letter is dated September 21 and comes from Gassin. It reads:
Dear Georges,
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other. I still remember those days when we took you in at the brotherhood, how you blossomed, and then we had to let you go, you who were driven by such a desire to see the world… You devoured books, hoping one day to discover every country you heard about, to meet people on the other side of the world, to help out too.
That’s why I’m sure you’ll respond favorably to our call. For several weeks now, our village has been under the control of a demon. Every inhabitant has already had to suffer from him and his attacks. My family has not been spared. You remember Emeline, my daughter. She had a narrow escape from the monster just yesterday. She was on her way home when a terrifying noise was heard and a shadow seemed to cover the sky. You know her: intrepid as she is, she took off running through the narrow streets of the village, slipping into a covered passage, sneaking into the Androuno… She managed to lose him and found refuge in our house, terrified. We barricaded ourselves every night, as we do now. But this can’t go on: please come back soon!
Your friend, Siffren Gandolphe.
Georges had abandoned his book and was already getting up.
–I’ll leave you to carry on working here: I’m off to help my friends right now.
Parcours Halloween 2021 – Monster Escape
Congratulations! Here you are, at the end of your journey to Gassin, the village of witches… and now vampire-free! You’ll find the answers to the questions below!
Question 1:Answer: 854. Line 1: we know that 4, 5 and 8 are in the code. Only one is in the right place. Line 2: the only digit already known is 8, but it’s always in the wrong place. We therefore know that 8 is not well placed, but that 4 or 5 is in the right place. Line 3: we learn that 4 or 8 may be in the right place. Line 4: since 8 is the only digit in the code (line 1), we know that it must be in the right place. By deduction from line 3, we know that 4 must be in the last position. The 5 is therefore in the middle. Line 5 confirms that 5 is not at the beginning.
Question 2: Answer: b. A poisonous spider. Vénéneux is used for plants that contain poison, that can poison. Vélipeuse is… a non-existent word!
The solenodon paradoxal is one of the few venomous mammals. It lives in the West Indies and its bite contains a poison.
And if you want to know what a poisonous plant looks like, here’s digitalis, which is very dangerous for humans.
Question 3: answer: stone statue (the snake makes “s”(ssss); there’s a “heap”; the killer “kills”; the number “two”; the animal “magpie”; the letter “r”).
Question 4: answer: to protect themselves with herbal emanations. They filled the mask with a potion made from over 55 medicinal herbs, powdered viper skin, cinnamon, myrrh and honey. They believed this mixture would prevent contamination.
Question 5: answer: 10. Perhaps you thought of 12? Well, no, he needs 10 days, because when he gets to the top of the shaft on day 10, he gets out without waiting to go back down during the night. Hopefully you’ll be long gone by then!
Question 6: Answer: c. Bats use a kind of radar: echolocation. They send out a sound and listen to the sound in return. This enables them to detect objects. Cetaceans use the same process.
Question 7: Answer: lion – goat – snake. From Greek mythology, the chimera is a fantastically evil creature, half lion, half goat, with the tail of a snake. It ravaged Lycia, a Greek region, before the hero Bellophoron, riding Pegasus, overcame it.
Question 8: answer: turnip. Halloween was originally celebrated in all Celtic countries, especially Ireland. In Ireland, turnips were carved (and when the Irish moved to America, they carved pumpkins, popularizing the festival) in memory of Jack at the Lantern. Here’s the story in a little more detail:
Like the drunkard he is, Jack is drinking in a tavern one night when he bumps into the Devil. The Devil tries to trade Jack’s soul for devilish favors. But when Jack asks the Devil for a nightcap before accepting, the Devil turns into a coin… but Jack immediately slips the coin into his purse, where a silver cross lies. He has succeeded in trapping the Devil. He only agrees to free him on the promise that the Devil won’t come for his soul for another ten years. Long after that, the Devil, passing by a field, recognizes Jack and claims his soul. As a last request, Jack asks the Devil if he can pick him an apple, and when the Devil has climbed the tree, Jack carves a cross in the wood and traps him again. He only frees him in return for a promise never to take his soul. When he dies, Jack, a cunning but wicked man, is not accepted into Heaven… but the Devil also refuses to let him pass through the gates of Hell. From the infernal lair, Jack retrieves a piece of burning coal to light his way in the dark…. He places this coal in a hollowed-out turnip, which he uses as a lantern in his endless wanderings… He only reappears in the world of the living on Halloween night…
Question 9: answers: château, chagrin, chaleur, chapiteau, chamarrée, charpie, char, chafouin, chahuté, chaloupe, charge, charme, charlatan, etc., etc., etc.
According to legend, a fisherman on Lake Geneva promised to offer his first catch to Christ… but forgetting his promise, he drew a large cat from his nets. The cat turned into a monster, the Chapalu, which Arthur had to fight(http://expositions.bnf.fr/arthur/grand/art_167.htm).
Question 10: It’s the Moors.
Question 11: answer: the equinox – the moment when day and night last the same length of time. This happens twice a year, around March 21 and September 21. The other time when witches gather is the solstice. There are two solstices in the year: around June 21 (the day when days last longest), and in winter, around December 21 (the day when days last shortest).
Question 12: Answer: 320 grams. Weight varies according to height, gender, etc. Women’s femurs are lighter than men’s, for example. The femur is also the heaviest bone: it’s located in the leg, all along the thigh.
Question 13: Answer 1: Cyclops. Cyclops are giant monsters; apart from their size, their main characteristic is to have a single eye, placed in the middle of the forehead. The first Cyclops forged thunderbolts for Zeus. During his odyssey, Ulysses met another cyclops, Polyphemus, who locked up Ulysses and his companions…
Answer 2: The cauldron is high up on the wall.
And if you want to know more about our hero…
Argument
Vlad Hymir (or: Dimitri Van Loupe; or Leonid Praitivum or Dorian Vielptumi), a bloodthirsty vampire , has settled in Gassin with his accomplice, Arron Dakzymav. The locals call in Georges de La Martinière, a famous monster hunter. You step in just as Georges needs help hunting down the vampire.
Ж
ЖЖ
Prologue. The adventurous Georges de La Martinière
Georges was born at the Château de La Martinière in the Gassin countryside. He spent a happy childhood there, fascinated by everything that surrounded him: nature, animals, the work of men… A lively, intelligent child, he was a delight to his parents, who were unfortunately forced to abandon him due to financial ruin. The Gassin community took him under its wing, and saw in him the future. They contributed so that the now teenager could study. He went to Lyon and then to Switzerland, far from home. His favorite subjects were medicine and history, in which he excelled, as well as foreign languages. This soon enabled him to travel, and he shared his talents as a doctor with others. At every stage of his travels, he immersed himself in local cultures and history. He visited the Americas, faraway Asia, Africa too; in Europe, he lingered in Central Europe and settled in Transylvania several months ago. He has become attached to this region, astonished by the customs of its people. This is where the Gassinois Mail found him.
Ж
ЖЖ
Chapter I. A terrified Gassin community
For several weeks now, a vampire has been stirring up trouble in Gassin. No one dares venture into the village alleys after dark, man or beast. Dogs follow their masters home with heads bowed, trembling, eyes scanning their surroundings erratically for fear of horror. Cats no longer go out at night to hunt rats, so afraid are they of being outside at the mercy of the monster. And even in the home, men, dogs and cats sleep with one ear to the fireplace.
During the day, we barely whisper when we talk about his misdeeds: if we talk about him, we’re afraid of attracting bad luck…
-You’ve heard what’s being said,” says Tropez Gauthier, the corkmaker, back from a long trip to his old friend.
-Shut up! He’ll hear you,” replies Ernest Tollon, the local baker. But you should know that all the residents are meeting in the village hall after work, when the bell rings at 5pm. It seems they want to send for Georges de la Martinière. Let’s hope he comes soon…
At the appointed hour, all the villagers gather in the brotherhood hall, and it’s decided: the local boy who’s gone far away, now a teacher who’s seen so much, is called upon to help. The brotherhood’s rector, Siffren Gandolphe, was asked to write the letter and send it immediately. As soon as the decision is made, everyone rushes to get home as quickly as possible… Everyone is afraid of getting caught in the night, and in this month of September, the days are getting shorter…
Ж
ЖЖ
Chapter II. At Vila Wilhelmina (Brașov, Transilvania)
–Mail for you, Professor!
–Who are you writing to?” asks Georges de La Martinière to his assistant, the loyal Joseph Lavagne.
-It’sfrom back home in France,” he replies, happy to have news from the country.
–Please read,” asks the professor, immersed in the study of an old grimoire.
–The letter is dated September 21 and comes from Gassin. It reads:
Dear Georges,
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other. I still remember those days when we took you in at the brotherhood, how you blossomed, and then we had to let you go, you who were driven by such a desire to see the world… You devoured books, hoping one day to discover every country you heard about, to meet people on the other side of the world, to help out too.
That’s why I’m sure you’ll respond favorably to our call. For several weeks now, our village has been under the control of a demon. Every inhabitant has already had to suffer from him and his attacks. My family has not been spared. You remember Emeline, my daughter. She had a narrow escape from the monster just yesterday. She was on her way home when a terrifying noise was heard and a shadow seemed to cover the sky. You know her: intrepid as she is, she took off running through the narrow streets of the village, slipping into a covered passage, sneaking into the Androuno… She managed to lose him and found refuge in our house, terrified. We barricaded ourselves every night, as we do now. But this can’t go on: please come back soon!
Your friend, Siffren Gandolphe.
Georges had abandoned his book and was already getting up.
–I’ll leave you to carry on working here: I’m off to help my friends right now.