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Paris > Book reviews > Walking the Da Vinci Code in Paris > Excerpt 3

book coverWalking the Da Vinci Code in Paris

Book Review: Excerpt 3
Continued from: Excerpt 2

Sophie's world: Sandrine Bieil

"Dan Brown has presented his readers with a cast of colorful characters that some literary critics have called shallow and trite. A careful look at their character traits, every personal detail, and thir names reveals the Joycean web woven by Brown. The description of each character is completed with suggestions of what he or she might have done in Paris."

Sandrine Bieil

"Here we find two names linked with the quest for the Holy Grail. The Abbé Bieil was the director general of the Seminary of St-Sulpice when the real-life Saunière of Rennes-le-Château brought the mysterious documents he discovered to the church. Gino Sandri, from whom Brown takes the name Sandrine, was the personal secretary of Pierre Plantard, the grand master of the Priory of Sion in modern times. The nun, guardian of the keystone, is murdered in the church by Silas.

"Living in the church she would have done her shopping at the lovely nearby covered market--the Marché St-Germain, 75006, metro Odéon or Mabillon--with its food shops, boutiques, and restaurants.

"She also probably bought homemade produce (jams, biscuits, incense, essential oils) from the monastery shop of Paris, Monastic Produce, boutique of the Fraternité monastique de Jerusalem, 10 rue des Barres, 75004, metro Hôtel-de-Ville (see map, p. 53).

"Shops specializing in devotional objects are all around St-Sulpice (see map, p. 59), especially rue du Vieux-Colombier."

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

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