"Brexit will not end the love affair between the British and Aude. The many who have moved there to work are determined to stay, and are busy getting residency permits or French citizenship.
"In terms of Brexit, you would have to shoehorn me out with a shotgun," says Charlotte Pye, a yoga teacher who helps kids in rugby clubs up and down the Aude valley in her spare time. "My life is here."
But in an area with an economy on the brink, any drop in foreign income can make a big difference. And in a tiny place like Alet, the departure of even a few of its most active residents poses a threat to community life.
"Brexit is a danger for us," says Anim'Alet volunteer Claude Carayol. "If the British are not there, who will replace them?" "
Prominent Brextremist Nigel Lawson has applied for French residency. Barmy Rice-Pudd has set up in Ireland. Froggy Farage doubtless has dug himself a bolt-hole. The owner of the Daily Mail has French residency.
If you want to know what the Quitters really believe, look at what they do, not what they say.