This year, I was planning to invoice clients and do my end-of-month bookkeeping on October 31 while Mark, dressed as Freddy Krueger with a claw glove and his grandfather’s gardening hat, was going to treat-or-treat a few time zones and 5,000 kilometres away.

Honestly, mandatory accounting is a scary monthly chore for someone like me who likes words better than numbers, but it’s not Halloween-level scary.

But why would I celebrate Halloween? I’m in France this year, and the last time I checked, Halloween was just this “really cool” North American holiday that never took off across the ocean despite multiple attempts to make it a thing in the 1980s and 1990s.

I swear that for years, decades even, Halloween was a non-event in France, much like Thanksgiving or Black Friday.

But apparently, the French are now celebrating Halloween. Or maybe it’s just a thing in Nantes because I don’t remember seeing anything orange or scary last year in Paris.

Much to my surprise, this evening, Nantes was full of parents shepherding kids in Halloween costumes, trick or treating with a French twist. Since Halloween isn’t a traditional French holiday and since most people live in apartment buildings, kids go beg for candies… in bars. I’m guessing this wouldn’t fly in North America where it’s not socially acceptable to acknowledge that we, mere mortals, drink booze (… and occasionally smoke, do drugs, have sex, etc.).

At 7 p.m., I walked to the castle. The Château des Ducs de Bretagne was the spookiest place I could find and it was open all night, free admission—a great Halloween option. After the Mongols last year, this time I explored the new “Chevaliers” exhibition featuring European weapons and armour from the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

On the way back, I chatted with Mark and Feng who were getting ready for their Canadian Halloween.

It’s now 1 a.m. and the city is still partying. Jesus and a unicorn are drinking at the bar downstairs, next to a bunch of Mad Max (?) characters.

I guess I’ll do my invoicing tomorrow…