Pizzaria, Rennes-les-Bains

On the Place de Deux Rennes, the pizzaria is the meeting place for English-speaking people. The proprietor is Will, who is actually Welsh.

The first time I was there I ordered a pizza and then saw Will rolling the dough for it! These pizzas are real Italian pizzas, no pale imitations, and I was so impressed to find this quality in a remote village in the Corbières. No wonder people come from miles around.

Will has an apartment above the restaurant where the musician Ani Williams stays every summer. You can often meet her in the Place des Deux Rennes for she looks after the flowers. The views out of the windows make it a delightful place to live. Directly opposite the pizzaria is L'Horloge - the Clock café, the artistic café.

This photo that I have used on the opening place of this blog was taken the very first time I saw "la place" and ate at the pizzaria. (My friend Dave and I had just been looking at the Source de la Madeleine which I had thought might be connected with Mary Magdalene.)

The guy with the tie in the centre of the first picture, sitting opposite us, told me he had met Mary Magdalene and Jesus in the flesh quite recently! "She's lovely, she's lovely," he said. This so impressed me, people talking quite naturally about the connection between Mary Magdalene and Jesus being in the region. I've heard, over the years, of many spiritual tourists who visit the region convinced they are reincarnated from Mary.
Since that first visit I've done a bit of a survey of wonderful pizzas!

The salads aren't bad either.

In April 2014 I was there with a group of friends and it's true that you never know who you are going to meet in Rennes-les-Bains. It was my great pleasure and delight to meet Ani Williams who was staying in Rennes for the summer. Ani is a natural healer who is also an excellent musician; she plays the harp in concerts held all over "The High Valley of the Aude" in summer.

You can see a film of her playing by clicking here. Her first song is the Lord's prayer in Aramaic.

But that wasn't all! I saw a young man sitting alone and went to talk to him - I had seen him in films about Bugarach in the run up to 20th December 2012. In spite of his reputation as a "nut-case" I thought he was very nice, so young and innocent, and invited him to speak to our group.

He explained that he is the "Christ Cosmique," which is not the same as Jesus, and he was the Grand Monarch prophesied by Nostradamus. He has stood in the recent local elections at Arques because he represents "Homme Vert", that is green man, who is prepared to work for a more peaceful and natural earth. Nobody was very impressed! But I would be quite happy for a green world run on Jesus principles, myself.