In the hamlet of La Bastide, in a remote valley of the southern Aude region near the Spanish border, residents are astonished to find out that one of their village residents, was infact Alex Batty, a British teenager who has been missing since 2017, and lived for a while under an assumed name, housed and fed by the owners of a gîte in the village, in exchange for his help. "They're nice people," says Roger Vales, a pensioner and local councillor, of Alex Batty and his grandfather. "We had no idea there was a strange story behind it," says Susie Harrison, a local resident. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES