Postcard from... Marciac

Virginie Cordélis is not your average cleaner. She’s a spiritual cleanser and is visiting a remote water mill in southwestern France where she is evicting troubled souls. She’s also measuring the energy levels in the old house - and its current owners.

Ms Cordélis is one of a growing number of people in France interested in geobiology, a science which sounds like a cross between Chinese feng shui and Ghostbusters. But she insists that she’s not an exorcist. At the watermill, where the previous owner committed suicide, she sensed two “entities” or souls “who wanted to leave”. “I told them to go,” she says. She also detected the remains of dead sheep and a cow in the garden. One of the first things she did was to order the removal of a marble topped washstand which was giving off bad vibes in a bedroom.

Ms Cordélis has studied and practised geobiology for the past seven years, after an expert helped with her daughter’s insomnia. As soon as the geobiologist advised her to move the bed out of an alcove, get rid of the furry animals and shift a piece of furniture from the bedroom, her daughter’s normal sleep patterns returned.

Ms Cordélis charged 320 euros for two days work on the property. The owners are awaiting her final report.