By Nick Fagge In The Pyrenees and Elena Salvoni
12:03 19 Dec 2023, updated 13:05 19 Dec 2023
- Melanie Batty, 43, ‘joined the spiritual community’ after it sprang up this year
Pictures reveal life inside the Garden of Eden ‘spiritual community’ in southern France where Alex Batty’s fugitive mother is said to have lived – just a few miles from where the ‘kidnapped’ British teenager was found after six years.
Melanie Batty, 43, is said to have joined the community in late summer after it sprang up in February this year at an abandoned campsite just a short drive from Chalabre, Aude.
The property was bought by some 50 members of the ‘Conscience Verte’ [Green Conscious] association, who cleared the farmland to hold festivals throughout the summer and took up residence in tents and ramshackle huts on the 43-hectare site.
About five miles away, a cafe owner in Chalabre claims he served Melanie, who he knew as ‘Rose’, along with Alex and his grandfather David, as recently as last Saturday.
It comes amid claims that 17-year-old Alex told French police officers his mother had gone to Finland as she ‘wanted to see the Northern Lights’, something which residents have denied.
Spread over 43 hectares of farmland, the ‘L’Eden’, where Melanie is thought to have stayed under the name Rose, has flower meadows, woods and has a river running through it.
Tents, teepees and huts are dotted around the rolling hills and horses, dogs and cats wander around at will.
An expat Briton, who has lived in Chalabre for more than 20 years, said: ‘I know Rose and her family. She is not in Finland, like it is being said in the press.
‘Rose was living at the ‘Garden of Eden’ community. They have lots of festivals throughout the summer and she went there frequently.
‘At the end of the summer she moved in there, at the beginning of October, I should think. She was living there until about a month ago. She left when the weather got bad. She rented a room at a friend’s house.
‘In fact, Rose has been here until just a few days ago. She finally left the area on Saturday morning. She felt she wasn’t safe with all the media attention.
‘I don’t know where she has gone.’
Two members of the ‘Conscience Verte’ association refused to discuss the whereabouts of ‘Rose’ – Melanie Batty – when they were approached at the ‘Garden of Eden’ community.
One man said: ‘I don’t know an English woman called Rose. And even if I did I wouldn’t tell you.’
French investigators are understood to have been working on the theory that his mother Melanie had recently left France without Alex to go to Finland to see the northern lights – while his grandfather David was said to have died six months ago.
But now the owner of the Café des Sports in South West France has told how he is certain he saw Alex with mother Melanie and grandfather David as a family group enjoying drinks on his terrace on the afternoon of Saturday December 9.
This was just four days before he was picked up by a lorry driver in the early hours of Wednesday December 13 as he walked along a country road south of Toulouse in the pouring rain.
The café is in Chalabre, Aude, about 30 miles from the farmhouse Gite where Alex Batty was living with his grandfather.
The café is a few miles from the country road where the teenager was picked up by the lorry driver in the dead of night.
Valentin Petrini, 46, owner of the Café des Sports, in Chalabre, Aude, said: ‘The boy, Alex, was here with his mother and grandfather about ten days ago. it must have been last Saturday, in the afternoon, say at about 2.30pm.
‘They come in from time to time. The mother, Rose, comes inside to charge her phone and use the wifi.
‘She was here with her son, who we knew as Zach, and her father, Peter.
‘Rose likes to drink a coffee.
‘I have met them several times.
‘Rose introduced me to her father Peter. He is a craftsman in wood. They showed me pictures of his work and said he could do any repairs that were needed. His work looked good but to be honest I can do that myself.
‘He seemed nice. He only drank alcohol free beer, Heineken Blue. He said he was following the path of Jesus.
‘After that conversation all three of them went to sit on the terrace. It was a nice day. Zach drank a coke.
‘Like everyone else around here, I had no idea that the boy had been kidnapped by his own mother and that the family were fugitives. They seemed happy together.
‘Rose used to live by the lake outside of the village. I have a little bar there and I would see her there.
‘In the summer the boy would go there to swim in the lake and ride his bicycle.
‘At the end of the summer Rose left that campsite and went to live with an alternative community somewhere near here.’
Bar maid Viviane Petrini added: ‘The English woman Rose was here with her father and her son Zach last Saturday. I served them.’
Alex Batty disappeared six years ago when he failed to return to Britain from a pre-arranged trip to Spain with mother Melanie and grandfather David.
Greater Manchester Police put out a missing persons alert for the youngster who was 11 at the time.
Alex, now aged 17, was reunited with his grandmother Susan Caruana, who is his legal guardian, in Oldham, on Saturday night.
He had been living at a remote farmhouse in the hamlet of La Bastide with his grandfather who worked as a handyman since the autumn of 2021.
He was cared for by the French family that owned the farmhouse, and was considered as part of the family.
But Alex wanted to return to the UK to get identity documents so that he could study computer science at school.
Greater Manchester Police are currently considering whether to launch a criminal investigation into his disappearance.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
