Rennes-le-Château and Rennes-les-Bains

All the information you need!

  
  In spite of all the talk at the moment, in the publishing trade, about e-books, print books do a wonderful job spreading the word about Rennes-le-Château and its mysteries at Rennes-le-Château itself.

  There are two bookshops in the village, the first is called Atelier Empreinte, pictures above, on the left as you go towards the centre of the village and the second called Porte de Rennes is on the left just before you arrive at the church.

 
  Long ago in 2009, I went to Rennes-le-Château with a friend, walked into Atelier Empreinte and tentatively asked if I could leave some books there on a sale or return basis.  Well, of course!  One of them was the Visigothic Inheritance, which is still selling there today.

  The next day the proprietor, Nico, rang me up.  "I've sold two of your books already!"  he said.  "Can you supply some more?"  That was the first time any of my books had ever sold in a shop.  I was overwhelmed.

  At the time I was writing "Mary, Jesus and the Charismatic Priest" so I thought I had better hurry up and publish it.  Porte de Rennes held a book-signing for me at Easter, 2010.  It was pouring with rain and hardly anyone was there!  We only sold one book but I did get to meet Ben Hammott!

  Since then my contact with both bookshops has grown and grown, and they are of quite different styles.  Atelier Empreinte, who organise the annual August "Days of Books and Strangeness" is very French in style, (click here to see more) with their own publishing company which publishes many books in French exploring every corner of "The Mystery!"  They also have a collectors' second-hand and rare books department.

  Porte de Rennes is a real "Aladdin's Cave"!   While they specialise in books about Rennes-le-Château in all languages, they also sell gifts for your friends beside beautiful statues and ornaments on religious, esoteric and spiritual themes.

   
They have recently entirely renovated the shop, and it has two windows where was once the green panelling above, adding extra light inside and offering those on the way to the church a view of the goodies inside.

  Yes, over five years things can change!  In Atelier Empreinte now it is usually Tony who guards the shop and he and I always have a laugh together.

 Sad news in May 2016 - it looks as though Atelier Empreinte, a family business, is in difficulties and may have to close. 

 In the autumn I went to the bankruptcy sale in Carcassonne, where nearly everything was auctioned off, and to the amazement of everybody there, no-one wanted to bid for the replica marble "devil" that had been in the shop for years and was valued at 13,000€!

  Anyway, have a look at Films to Watch for an impromptu film of the proceedings.  Turn the sound up, it is a bit faint.

  Well Tony was at a bit of a loose end, having worked there for some years, but he now has a "librarie roulant" - a rolling bookshop called The Red Rose - and so appears at all the local markets - Alet, Quillan, Limoux on Fridays, and others - where he sells books in English as well as French.  And he is doing very well.

  In the spring of 2017 came good news - Atelier Empreinte was going to open as it had been purchased by our good friends Hélène and Serge who also own the Porte de Rennes!  Now, "La Porte" is concentrating on gifts as well as books, while the new Atelier Empreinte has books in every language you can imagine which includes a whole wall of books all in English!