{"id":236221,"date":"2023-12-19T12:23:18","date_gmt":"2023-12-19T12:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mystylenews.com\/?p=236221"},"modified":"2023-12-19T12:23:18","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T12:23:18","slug":"inside-garden-of-eden-community-where-alex-battys-mum-melanie-lived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mystylenews.com\/world-news\/inside-garden-of-eden-community-where-alex-battys-mum-melanie-lived\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Garden of Eden community where Alex Batty's mum Melanie lived"},"content":{"rendered":"
Alex Batty’s fugitive mother lived in a ‘spiritual community’ on an abandoned campsite in southern France, according to locals living near to where the ‘kidnapped’ British teenager was found after six years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Melanie Batty, 43, is said to have joined the ‘Garden of Eden’ community after it sprang up at an old campsite just a few miles from Chalabre, Aude,\u00a0in February this year.<\/p>\n
The property was bought by some 50 members of the ‘Conscience Verte’ [Green Conscious] association who cleared the land to hold festivals and parties throughout the summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pictures from inside the 43-hectare site show how the ‘eco-conscious’ group which has taken up residence on it live in tents, ramshackle huts, and put on festivals over the summer.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It comes amid claims that 17-year-old Alex told French police officers his mother had gone to Finland\u00a0as she ‘wanted to see the Northern Lights’, something which residents have denied.<\/p>\n
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Alex Batty, who went missing aged 11 and is now 17, with his mother Melanie and grandfather David<\/p>\n
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The ‘Conscience Verte’ [Green Conscious] association cleared the land to hold festivals and parties throughout the summer<\/p>\n
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A tent inside woodland at the ‘Garden of Eden’ ‘spiritual community’ near Chalabre, Aude<\/p>\n
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Huts have been put up on the site, pictures show, which was bought by an ‘eco-conscious’ group<\/p>\n
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Inside one of the tents in the ‘Garden of Eden’ community, which was set up on 43 hectares of farmland<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tents, teepees and huts are dotted around the rolling hills and horses, dogs and cats wander around at will.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
‘Rose was living at the ‘Garden of Eden’ community. They have lots of festivals throughout the summer and she went there frequently.<\/p>\n
‘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.<\/p>\n
‘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.<\/p>\n
‘I don’t know where she has gone.’<\/p>\n
Two members of the ‘Conscience Verte’ association refused to discuss the whereabouts of ‘Rose’ \u2013 Melanie Batty \u2013 when they were approached at the ‘Garden of Eden’ community.<\/p>\n
One man said: ‘I don’t know an English woman called Rose. And even if I did I wouldn’t tell you.’<\/p>\n
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A sign designating where the ‘Garden of Eden’ community is. The settlement is covered in woodland and flower meadows<\/p>\n
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A man doing woodwork in the ‘spiritual community’ where Melanie Batty was said to be living<\/p>\n
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Horses and other animals are said to roam free in the community, which is an abandoned campsite<\/p>\n
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The ‘Garden of Eden’ community sprang up at an old campsite in February this year about five miles from Chalabre, Aude<\/p>\n
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Tents, teepees and huts are dotted around the rolling hills and horses, dogs and cats wander around at will<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But now the owner of the Caf\u00e9 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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Valentin Petrini (pictured), 46, owner of the Caf\u00e9 des Sports, in Chalabre, Aude, said: ‘The boy, Alex, was here with his mother and grandfather about ten days ago’<\/p>\n
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Barmaid Viviane Petrini, who said she saw teenager Alex Batty in her cafe in Chalabre, France with his mother and grandfather just days before he was picked up by a French lorry driver<\/p>\n
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The cafe in Chalabre, France where the owner claims to have seen British teenager Alex Batty with his mother Melanie and grandfather<\/p>\n
The caf\u00e9 is in Chalabre, Aude, about 30 miles from the farmhouse Gite where Alex Batty was living with his grandfather.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The caf\u00e9 is a few miles from the country road where the teenager was picked up by the lorry driver in the dead of night.<\/p>\n
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A member of ‘The Garden of Eden’ spiritual community\u00a0<\/p>\n
Valentin Petrini, 46, owner of the Caf\u00e9 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.<\/p>\n
‘They come in from time to time. The mother, Rose, comes inside to charge her phone and use the wifi.<\/p>\n
‘She was here with her son, who we knew as Zach, and her father, Peter.<\/p>\n
‘Rose likes to drink a coffee.<\/p>\n
‘I have met them several times.<\/p>\n
‘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.<\/p>\n
‘He seemed nice. He only drank alcohol free beer, Heineken Blue. He said he was following the path of Jesus.<\/p>\n
‘After that conversation all three of them went to sit on the terrace. It was a nice day. Zach drank a coke.<\/p>\n
‘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.<\/p>\n
‘Rose used to live by the lake outside of the village. I have a little bar there and I would see her there.<\/p>\n
‘In the summer the boy would go there to swim in the lake and ride his bicycle.<\/p>\n
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Alex, from Oldham, was 11 when he did not return from a holiday to Spain with his mother Melanie, then 37, and grandfather David, then 58, in 2017<\/p>\n
‘At the end of the summer Rose left that campsite and went to live with an alternative community somewhere near here.’<\/p>\n
Bar maid Viviane Petrini added: ‘The English woman Rose was here with her father and her son Zach last Saturday. I served them.’<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Greater Manchester Police put out a missing persons alert for the youngster who was 11 at the time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Alex Batty (pictured left) with his mother Melanie (centre) and grandfather David (right) six years ago<\/p>\n
Alex, now aged 17, was reunited with his grandmother Susan Caruana, who is his legal guardian, in Oldham, on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He was cared for by the French family that owned the farmhouse, and was considered as part of the family.<\/p>\n
But Alex wanted to return to the UK to get identity documents so that he could study computer science at school.<\/p>\n
Greater Manchester Police are currently considering whether to launch a criminal investigation into his disappearance.<\/p>\n