2023-12-19 22:08:00
Montois Frédéric Hambye says he is exasperated. Exasperated by what he calls “the amalgams”. But still avoid concrete questions. He admits that he and his Verviers companion Ingrid welcomed, under false names, Alex Batty and his grandfather, in the former Templar farm of Camps-sur-l’Agly (in Aude, in France) that They transformed it into a Bastide gîte, renamed Cabania Pays Cathare. “We called him Zach, because we didn’t know what his name was,” says the mayor of Camps-sur-l’Agly.
Aerial view of the village of Camps sur Agly. ©AFP or licensors
The young Briton had been missing since 2017. The patriarch and his mother are suspected of having kidnapped him on vacation when only his grandmother, Susan Carvana, had custody. Both Alex and his grandmother met last Saturday in England.
For Frédéric Hambye, who was an Ecolo municipal councilor in Mons, “welcoming this family was in a certain way a matter of Christian charity”.
Christian charity? The specter of the sect arises, relayed by native villagers. In good faith or simply exasperated by the massive arrival of neo-rurals in their region even if it means getting dirty? The owners of the lodge claimed to have met Zach, the name by which Alex Batty was called, at the end of fall 2021, then accompanied by his grandfather and his mother. “He stayed with us for certain more or less long periods” and he “left on several occasions to join his mother in her successive places of residence between Aude and Ariège.”
Le Gite de la Bastide, where Alex has stayed on several occasions. ©AFP or licensorsThe dining room of the Bastide gîte. ©AFP or licensorsThe man who found young Alex Batty, missing for six years, testifies: “I didn’t believe it at first”
During his stays in this commune in Aude, the owners of the gîte say they “encouraged him to learn French and to study” and to integrate it into their family life. “In particular, he had a room to himself, unlimited Internet access and was completely free to come and go as he pleased.” At the lodge, he worked twenty hours a week providing accommodation.
Certainly, the Hambye-Beauve couple is atypical, keen on yoga and organics. He had previously run a lodge in Belgium, in Viroinval, before facing bankruptcy. But he rejects the accusation of having formed a “spiritual community” by landing at the foot of the Bugarach peak. Politically correct notion avoiding pronouncing the term “sect”.
For Ingrid and Frédéric, who responded by press release, “the reception of this family was in a certain way a matter of Christian charity”. ©DR
Their son Nolan attends “Graines de vie”, a school which presents itself as “a private and caring school” following a “non-directive pedagogy”. Whether for objective reasons or simply a contempt for difference, this school collects allusions to their sectarian aspect. The establishment is a large chalet, which is not in the massif (35 children registered) and equipped with photovoltaic panels. This private associative school claims support from the Nature&Découvertes foundation for its workshops organized in the woods or its permaculture vegetable garden.
Regardless, the more mature Alex Batty ended up saying “no” to all of that. Here he has escaped, marking the road to Toulouse, crossing regions populated by “new arrivals” who have settled there and often children. Some live in the woods in yurts, cabins or converted trucks. The region, it is true, has its unique reputation.
Alex was found in the middle of the night last Wednesday by a delivery driver.
According to Libération, the peak of Bugarach attracts “zozoteric” people for a long time. The “cosmic Christ”, who had amused the gallery in December 2012 during the hypothetical but highly publicized expectation of “the end of the world” has disappeared from the sector, but the business remains.
And the grandfather in all this? He was announced dead, notably by Alex. Testimonies contradict this: “He was still there at least ten days ago.”
1703052696
#welcomed #family #Christian #charity #lodging #Belgian #couple #Alex #Batty #stayed #occasions