Rennes-le-Château and Rennes-les-Bains

 Kris Darquis, my friend, colleague and translator

Kris interviewing someone for La Gazette then with me at Serres;  she calls this, The Invincible Team!
   Kris, who is from Nice, is well-known at Rennes-le-Château, she goes to all the conferences and writes articles for the Rennes-le-Château Gazette web-site,  so she knows just about everything that goes on in the Two Rennes.  I took the first photograph in September 2012 during the annual book fair and we met again at the same event in the summer of 2013.  Then she photographed me, with The Mayor That Was Me, just published at the time, bought a copy of the book and reviewed it in the Gazette.  Kris is a very positive person and full of ideas, as well as speaking English perfectly.  She is also charming and beautiful!

   
  But underneath this soignée exterior is a wordsmith and an academic who works deep into the night to make sure that every word is perfect.  I was so thrilled when she asked if I had ever thought of translating my books into French.  I certainly had!  We arranged a meeting for the following November 2013 in Rennes-les-Bains.  Kris and Jean-Luc, her companion, usually stay there at the Coeur de Rennes.  We couldn't stop talking, ideas were coming so thick and fast that my tongue for one, was tripping over itself!

  Outside Chez Bruno at Rennes-les-Bains;  Kris, friend Philippe and Jean-Luc.

  Kris goes to many events and meetings in Rennes-le-Château and says that women are under-represented on the scene!  She particularly liked my little book about Claudia Procula and so we thought that would be a good place to start.  We had a long conversation about the difference between the English ideas and tastes and the French ones.  (Translation is a far more subtle task that just looking up words in the dictionary.)  We agreed that Kris should thus have a free hand and I was later impressed by her enthusiasm and all the extra material she added.  That day in the Place Deux Rennes I asked her what captured the French imagination, and she was intrigued that I had written about the Visigoths, as there is such great interest in them in France; and so we agreed that if all went well with "Claudia" then the second book would be a French version of my future Barbarian Gold book.

  The translation work went magnificently well throughout the winter months and we held a launch party at the Jardin de Marie restaurant in April 2014, on their opening day in fact.

   
Me, Morgan, Kris, Philippe, Jean-Luc, Kris, Jean-Luc, Trebha, Yves and Anne.

 Then we couldn't resist going around the bookshops to see Kris's book on the shelves, among the Great American writers!

 
 I also met her friend Ours the Bear that day, who disappeared to nap his lunch away, guarded by a tiny Mary Magdalene, in the church garden.  That is SO Languedocian!  He got woken up to be photographed . . .  (I am quite impressed by the way the French friends of Kris have taken me to their hearts.)

   
  Throughout the summer of 2014 I was inundated with repeat orders for Claudia en français.  It was a great success, Kris was interviewed by our local paper and by a well known Web Radio in France, called Bob Vous Dit la Verité (Bob tells you the truth) and even persuaded him to come to Rennes-le-Château for the November 1st holiday to record for two days!  All the big names were there, including the Mayor.

  Kris is excellent company and also throughout the summer we socialised and had many lunches together, as well as seeing interesting places under Kris's guidance, for she was co-writing a book about the Templars in the region, who were especially at Campagne-sur-Aude and Serres. 

   
I always told the world we were working of course, and sometimes we were.  Our heads were always together anyway!

A booksigning and a sunny discussion . . .
 Our last meeting was in October, when we discussed the French version of "Barbarian Gold". . . after lunch at the Hostellerie, of course.

But it doesn't look as though Kris will be translating more books.  She has ideas of her own that she wants to persue .. .