...or the tribulations of a ghost village.

Once upon a time, there was a tiny hamlet overlooking a valley in the heart of the Haute-Vienne region of the Limousin. By day, it was a ghost village, like dozens of others in France.

But when the light falls, and a light mist covers the old stones, the atmosphere becomes strange, disturbing even. At one time, enthusiasts came here to do a bit of urban exploration, but the place is just too eerie... People hardly ever come here any more, and never in the evening. It has to be said that the buildings are regularly and violently vandalised, and the church bells have even disappeared -... only to reappear a few days later... You end up wondering whether the village is cursed...

Courbefy is the most famous ghost village in France and beyond... Known from New York to Korea, this hamlet could have been the stuff of fairy tales to escape the desertification of the countryside. But when it was sold at auction in 2012, it became a symbol of disillusionment and the stuff of fantasy.

This is the story of the curse of Courbefy, the life, hope and death of a rural village, an extraordinary allegory of the history of the French countryside on what is now known as the ‘diagonal of the void’, which could well be premonitory...