This article was written by Ken Harbinson
As it happened, my wife was reading The Da Vinci Code as I was simultaneously absorbed in travel guides for our trip to the southwest of France. This is when the name 'Sauniere' emerged in both places. In the novel, he is the leader of a mysterious religious sect that for centuries has protected a 'Holy Grail'--the secret that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalen and that their descendants may still be alive today. It is an enigma that threatens to vanquish centuries of Christian orthodoxy, and has been guarded for generations not only by Leonardo, but by a long list of historical luminaries.
When Sauniere is murdered in the Louvre of Paris by those seeking his Holy Grail, he leaves behind a baffling series of clues which take the book's hero and heroine on a dangerous trail through the streets of Paris and into the lowlands of Scotland. Alas, The Da Vinci Code also filches the name of the real-life Abbe Berenger Sauniere together with the Holy Grail story surrounding this strange man. In yet another example of truth being stranger than fiction, the novel pales in comparison to the stories, speculations and fantasies surrounding this very real person.
Abbe Sauniere lived a century before the contemporary setting of the book--not in Paris, but in the remote hilltop village of Rennes-le-Chateau in southwest France. The story that he discovered proof of the marriage of Jesus to Mary Magdalen or perhaps even Mary's tomb remains but one of the tales surrounding the Abbe. The village is just 26 miles south of the famously fortified (and quite touristy) city of Carcassonne. The scenic drive winded us through the verdant Aude River valley which is a green oasis between the dry and rocky landscapes lying to both to the east and west.
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