"Room 16 bis"

Seven keys in hand, opening seven different doors. Three staircases to climb without stopping and two long corridors where it is always late: let’s just call this place The Hotel.

There, the shouts and whispers of the guests are absorbed by the cosy silence. The fabric-covered walls see all. Your nostrils get used to this particular air but strange events constantly happen under the noses of tired customers. The Hotel has its own life in the unsold rooms.  In places such as this, an ordinary vacuum cleaner recreates a sound that could be mistaken for a storm in high seas, capable of curdling a sleepwalker’s blood. Travellers arrive suddenly in the middle of the night with just one case, a case of light. In room 43, I myself was able to cut a wooden ladder in half using only a butter knife. Room 23 doesn’t even need to be entered; all you’ll find is the victim. And in room 16… there’s another exit, but it has to remain secret.

In fact, I have a certain number of memories of The Hotel that I would probably never dare tell anyone for fear of being misunderstood. The few photos I have left are just an attempt to reproduce some of these apparitions. After reading these lines, a similar experience might help those whose wry smiles show they still need convincing; just one night at The Hotel should be enough.