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Paris > Book reviews > Walking the Da Vinci Code in Paris > Excerpt 1

book coverWalking the Da Vinci Code in Paris

Book Review: Excerpt 1
Continued from: Book review - Page 1

Reasons for roundabout routes

"Dan Brown has his hero, Robert Langdon, and herine, Sophie Neveu, traveling across Paris in an extraordinary manner. Critics have railed about the impossibility of the journeys. Brown has Langdon leaving the Ritz and going by the Opera to get to the Louvre, which on a map appears completely impractical. He then has the police driving through the middle of the Tuileries Gardens, which is of course impossible to do in real life. During the early part of the story, Sophie and Langdon make an extraordinary getaway from the Louvre. They dash off in Sophie's SmartCar, they hire a taxi, steal a taxi, and end up at Château Villette in a stolen armored bank truck.

"Two choices are available: Take the critics' view and think 'nonsense,' or look at this journey in the light of Brown's book and see what it reveals. Drawing the route on a map, or following it on Paris buses, begins to reveal a few interesting clues: As Sophie and Langdon zigzag their way across the city, they trace a series of triangles, both blades and chalices. At the Louvre, their circuit forms two pyramid shapes. They then circle their way along boulevard Malesherbes, rue de la Pépinière, rue d'Amsterdam, sail past Montmartre, and head along the avenue de Clichy to the exterior boulevards on their way to the bois de Boulogne. In doing this they trace a Fibonacci spiral."

- Walking the Da Vinci Code in Paris, by Peter Caine

Next page: Excerpt 2: The Arc de Triomphe