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