The infamous Statue of Venus ...
"How interesting it would be, if it is true that the statue exists, to bring it to light and build it on the square of our station!"
These are the words that Dr Paul COURRENT wrote when he discussed the thoughts of Marius CATHALA regarding the archaeological remains found at Rennes-les-Bains. CATHALA had been shown a marble "arm holding an egg" - which he thought was part of a larger statue. He also associated it with a find in the courtyard of La Maison Chaleleau [a local hotel] & therefore perhaps directly with a statue that Henri Boudet had seen and found [this is discussed in the next issue of the Rhedesium Journal].
Above - the arm holding an egg statue remains as drawn by a local witness.
Later, an archaeologist - Henri ROUZAUD - on a visit to Rennes, spoke directly with Henri Boudet about these archaeological finds and what Boudet thought they might be. In his notebooks Rouzaud wrote;
"𝐵𝑜𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑎𝑙s ... [that] h𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑤 𝑡h𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑅𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 at "𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒉'𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝑹𝒆𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒔 -𝒍𝒆-𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒖 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒓𝒐𝒂𝒅, 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒈𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑩𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒆”. Boudet also indicated to Rouzaud that "𝑎𝑡 𝑡h𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 the 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑡h𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤ere 𝑛𝑜 𝑏𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑡 houses 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡h𝑎𝑡 he h𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 h𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑡 ".
It puts a new perspective on the quote he put in his book 'La Vrai Langue Celtique'. The very last paragraph of the book is as follows:
"Then, at the ridge of Cap de l'Homme on the top of a menir, in front of the pagan temple, converted into a Christian church later destroyed by fire, was carved a beautiful head of the Savior looking out over the valley, and dominating all these Celtic monuments which had lost their teachings. The cross, victorious over paganism, has not ceased to reign in the cromleck of Rennes-les-Bains, and still maintains, engraved in the religious hearts of its inhabitants, the precepts of life given to the world by the Eternal Truth".
Would the Roman Temple he described to Rouzaud be the pagan temple, converted into a Christian church that he mentions here? Are remanants of the Roman Temple to b found near the church at Rennes-les-Bains? After all the ancient foundations are actually not far from the church as described by Boudet. His book was published in 1886 - so did Boudet already know of this Temples' existence? Maybe that is why he did so much archaeological investigation?
Below is an imagined vision of what the statue may have looked like in the centre of the village square, from an old photograph of Courrent's time -with a super-imposed image of a statue of Venus in the square. Perhaps this is what it would have looked like if COURRENT's wishes had come true!
