Holy Blood, Holy Grail Illustrated Edition by Michael Baigent Richard Leigh

Author:Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-15T16:00:00+00:00

‘Et in Arcadia Ego’ by the French painter, Nicolas Poussin. This, his first painting on the theme, was completed c 1630.

Having presented himself to Bieil and Hoffet, Saunière spent three weeks in Paris. What transpired during his meetings with the ecclesiastics is unknown. What is known is that the provincial country priest was promptly and warmly welcomed into Hoffet’s distinguished circle. It has even been asserted that he became Emma Calvé’s lover. Contemporary gossips spoke of an affair between them, and one acquaintance of the singer described her as being ‘obsessed’ with the curé. In any case there is no question but that they enjoyed a close enduring friendship. In the years that followed she visited him frequently in the vicinity of Rennes-le-Château, where, until recently, one could still find romantic hearts carved into the rocks of the mountainside, bearing their initials.

During his stay in Paris, Saunière also spent some time in the Louvre. This may well be connected with the fact that, before his departure, he purchased reproductions of three paintings. One seems to have been a portrait, by an unidentified artist, of Pope Célestin V, who reigned briefly at the end of the thirteenth century. One was a work by David Teniers – although it is not clear which David Teniers, father or son. 3 The third was perhaps the most famous tableau by Nicolas Poussin, ‘Les Bergers d’Arcadie’ – ‘The Shepherds of Arcadia’.

On his return to Rennes-le-Château, Saunière resumed his restoration of the village church. In the process he exhumed a curiously carved flagstone, dating from the seventh or eighth century, which may have had a crypt beneath it, a burial chamber in which skeletons were said to have been found. Saunière also embarked on projects of a rather more singular kind. In the churchyard, for example, stood the sepulchre of Marie, Marquise d’Hautpoul de Blanchefort. The headstone and flagstone marking her grave had been designed and installed by the Abbé Antoine Bigou – Saunière’s predecessor of a century before, who had apparently composed two of the mysterious parchments.

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