Bram, Carcassonne and Rennes-le-Château
If you are a fan of Dan Brown’s stratospheric best seller The Da Vinci Code, then the modest bastide village of Bram and the impressive citadel of Carcassonne are the two places on the Canal du Midi closest to one of the key locations associated with the book.
Take a break from your luxury barge cruise to travel thirty miles south to Rennes-le-Chateau and discover the spooky associations between this ancient French village and the intriguing Holy Grail conspiracies which gave rise to America’s biggest ever publishing sensation.
The Cathars inspire the Da Vinci Code
Concentrate now because this is complicated!
The Da Vinci Code was inspired by a theory that the Holy Grail (San Graal) referred to in ancient texts was not the sacred goblet of conventional thinking but actually the Sang Real, the bloodline of Jesus. The story goes that Mary Magdalen fled to France after the crucifixion, taking Jesus’s child with her, and that the line of their descendants can be traced to modern times. Rennes-le-Chateau is in Cathar country – the Cathars were a medieval religious sect believed to have taught in secret that this theory was true and they were persecuted to the point of extinction by the Catholic church during the fourteenth century.
Are you still with me?
At Rennes-le-Château, in Cathar country
Rennes-le-Château was the home to a 19th century parish priest called Berenger Saunière who undertook extensive renovations of the local church of St Michel. During the building work he claimed to have discovered some ancient parchments describing the location of the treasure that Blanche de Castille collected to pay the ransom of King Louis 1X when he was captured on crusade. Some people believe Sauniere discovered the treasure itself, or some of it, because this humble priest spent in excess of four and a half million euros in today’s money on restoring the church and building the Tour de Magdala (Magdalene’s Tower) which are the focal point of the village. Others believe that he didn’t find the treasure itself, but that the parchments provided proof that Jesus did indeed marry Mary Magdalen and that their descendants still live in France, and that Saunière used this information to blackmail the church. There are certainly no surviving accounts of where he raised the funds for the grand projects you can see at Rennes-le-Château today.
The atmosphere is palpable: above the church door Sauniere had carved the words Terribilis est Locus – this place is terrible, a statement borne out by the fact that the font is supported by a cloven-hoofed devil.
Hotel barges that cruise the Canal du Midi including Bram and Carcassonne include
Savannah, Athos, Saraphina, Roi Soleil and Esperance
Exploring Cathar Histories
You may find that your visit raises more questions than it answers, but if your interest is piqued there is lots of information in a non-fiction account of this strange conspiracy – The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. If you’ve really got the bit between your teeth, you might want to take in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, the coastal town where Mary Magdalene is said to have landed in France, or any of the haunting ruins of the Cathar castles (Peyreperteuse, Lastours and Montsegur are our favourites) which dot the landscape of the Languedoc.
Canal du Midi
Cruise one of the oldest canals in the world; the Canal du Midi is unique and breathtakingly beautiful, earning the title of UNESCO World Heritage Site. By self-drive boat or hotel barge, it offers a variety of cruising vistas – from sea-scapes and hillside views to tiny villages and the stunning medieval castle at Carcassonne.
