Chapter I of the novel begins with Robert Langdon asleep in the Ritz Hotel. Our trip begins with ourselves just outside the Ritz Hotel. One of the posh hotels with a lot of high end luxury cars parked outside.
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| Ritz Hotel, Paris |
Sitting up now, Langdon frowned at his bedside Guest Relations Handbook, whose cover boasted:
SLEEP LIKE A BABY IN THE CITY OF LIGHTS.
SLUMBER AT THE PARIS RITZ.
In
the beginning on his way to Louvre - The crisp April air whipped through the
open window of the Citroën ZX as it skimmed south past the Opera House and
crossed Place Vendôme.
As
the Citroën accelerated southward across the city, the illuminated profile of
the Eiffel Tower appeared, shooting skyward in the distance to the right. Symbologists often remarked that France—a
country renowned for machismo, womanizing, and diminutive insecure leaders like
Napoleon and Pepin the Short—could not have chosen a more
apt national emblem than a thousand-foot phallus.
the
famed Tuileries Gardens. Most tourists mistranslated Jardins des Tuileries as relating to the
thousands of tulips that bloomed here, but Tuileries was actually a literal
reference to something far less romantic. This park had once been an enormous,
polluted excavation pit from which Parisian contractors mined clay to
manufacture the city's famous red roofing tiles - or tuiles. Langdon had always considered the
Tuileries to be sacred ground. These were the gardens in which Claude Monet had
experimented with form and color, and literally inspired the birth of the
Impressionist movement.
Langdon
could now see the end of the Tuileries Gardens, marked by a giant stone
archway. Arc du Carrousel. Despite the orgiastic rituals once held at the Arc
du Carrousel, art aficionados revered this place for another reason entirely.
the
ancient obelisk of Ramses rose above the trees
Louvre Museum
It
was straight ahead, to the east, through the archway, that Langdon could now
see the monolithic renaissance palace that had become the most famous art
museum in the world. Musée du Louvre.
Across
a staggeringly expansive plaza, the imposing facade of the Louvre rose like a
citadel against the Paris sky. Shaped like an enormous horseshoe, the Louvre
was the longest building in Europe, stretching farther than three Eiffel Towers
laid end to end. Not even the million square feet of open plaza between the
museum wings could challenge the majesty of the facade's breadth. Langdon had
once walked the Louvre's entire perimeter, an astonishing three-mile journey.
Despite
the estimated five days it would take a visitor to properly appreciate the
65,300 pieces of art in this building, most tourists chose an abbreviated
experience Langdon referred to as "Louvre Lite"—a full sprint through
the museum to see the three most famous objects: the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo,
and Winged Victory. Art Buchwald had once boasted he'd seen all three
masterpieces in five minutes and fifty-six seconds.
The
Louvre's main entrance was visible now, rising boldly in the distance,
encircled by seven triangular pools from which spouted illuminated fountains.
La Pyramide.
The
new entrance to the Paris Louvre had become almost as famous as the museum
itself. The controversial, neomodern glass pyramid designed by Chinese-born
American architect I. M. Pei still evoked scorn from traditionalists who felt
it destroyed the dignity of the Renaissance courtyard. Progressive admirers,
though, hailed Pei's seventy-one-foot-tall transparent pyramid as a dazzling
synergy of ancient structure and modern method -a symbolic link between the old
and new -helping usher the Louvre into the next millennium.
"Mitterrand
was a bold man," Langdon replied, splitting the difference. The late
French president who had commissioned the pyramid was said to have suffered
from a "Pharaoh complex." Singlehandedly responsible for filling
Paris with Egyptian obelisks, art, and artifacts. François Mitterrand had an
affinity for Egyptian culture that was so all-consuming that the French still
referred to him as the Sphinx.
This
pyramid, at President Mitterrand's explicit demand, had been constructed of
exactly 666 panes of glass—a bizarre request that had always been a hot topic
among conspiracy buffs who claimed 666 was the number of Satan. – I
counted it using mathematical sequences and found the exact number to be 673
(odd number due to missing glasses around the entrance)
Godess
Isis:
Jacques Saunière was considered the premiere
goddess iconographer on earth. Not only did Saunière have a personal passion for relics
relating to fertility, goddess cults, Wicca, and the sacred feminine, but
during his twenty-year tenure as curator, Saunière had helped the Louvre amass the largest
collection of goddess art on earth—labrys axes from the priestesses' oldest Greek
shrine in Delphi, gold caducei wands, hundreds of Tjet ankhs resembling small standing angels, sistrum rattles used in ancient Egypt to
dispel evil spirits, and an astonishing array of statues depicting Horus being
nursed by the goddess Isis.
N-S
medallion inside the Louvre Museum.
Although
the Grand Gallery housed the Louvre's most famous Italian art, many visitors
felt the wing's most stunning offering was actually its famous parquet floor.
Laid out in a dazzling geometric design of diagonal oak slats, the floor
produced an ephemeral optical illusion—a multi-dimensional network that gave
visitors the sense they were floating through the gallery on a surface that
changed with every step.
The
exact length, if Langdon recalled correctly, was around fifteen hundred feet,
the length of three Washington Monuments laid end to end. Equally breathtaking was the corridor's
width, which easily could have accommodated a pair of side-by-side passenger
trains. The center of the hallway was dotted by the occasional statue or
colossal porcelain urn, which served as a tasteful divider and kept the flow of
traffic moving down one
wall and up the other.
"...moving
south... faster... crossing the Seine on Pont du Carrousel!“ – the
GPS dot was dropped from a window close to this
As
they entered the Salle des Etats, her eyes scanned the narrow room
and settled on the obvious spot of honor—the center of the right-hand wall, where a
lone portrait hung behind a protective Plexiglas wall.
That's
called the sfumato style of painting," he told
her, "and it's very hard to do. Leonardo da Vinci was better at it than anyone.“in which forms appear to evaporate
into one another.
Since taking up residence in the Louvre, the Mona Lisa—or La Jaconde as they call her in France—had
been stolen twice, most recently in 1911, when she disappeared from the
Louvre's "satte impénétrable"—Le Salon Carre. Parisians wept in the streets and wrote
newspaper articles begging the thieves for the painting's return. Two years
later, the Mona Lisa was discovered hidden in the false bottom of a trunk in a
Florence hotel room.
The Mona
Lisa's status
as the most famous piece of art in the world, Langdon knew, had nothing to do
with her enigmatic smile. Nor was it due to the mysterious interpretations
attributed her by many art historians and conspiracy buffs. Quite simply, the Mona
Lisa was
famous because Leonardo da Vinci claimed she was his finest accomplishment. He
carried the painting with him whenever he traveled and, if asked why, would
reply that he found it hard to part with his most sublime expression of female
beauty. Even so, many art historians suspected Da Vinci's reverence for the Mona
Lisa had
nothing to do with its artistic mastery. In actuality, the painting was a
surprisingly ordinary sfumato portrait. Da Vinci's veneration for
this work, many claimed, stemmed from something far deeper: a hidden message in
the layers of paint. The Mona
Lisa was,
in fact, one of the world's most documented inside jokes. The painting's
well-documented collage of double entendres and playful allusions had been revealed
in most art history tomes, and yet, incredibly, the public at large still
considered her smile a great mystery.
"the
background behind her face is uneven. Da Vinci painted the horizon line on the
left significantly lower than the right. Actually, this is a little trick Da
Vinci played. By lowering the countryside on the left, Da Vinci made Mona Lisa
look much larger from the left side than from the right side. A little Da Vinci
inside joke. Historically, the concepts of male and female have assigned
sides—left is female, and right is male. Because Da Vinci was a big fan of
feminine principles, he made Mona Lisa look more majestic from the left than
the right.
Madonna
of the Rocks: The
painting showed a blue-robed Virgin Mary sitting with her arm around an infant
child, presumably Baby Jesus. Opposite Mary sat Uriel, also with an infant,
presumably baby John the Baptist. Oddly, though, rather than the usual
Jesus-blessing-John scenario, it was baby John who was blessing Jesus... and
Jesus was submitting to his authority! More troubling still, Mary was holding
one hand high above the head of infant John and making a decidedly threatening
gesture—her fingers looking like eagle's talons, gripping an invisible head.
Finally, the most obvious and frightening image: Just below Mary's curled
fingers, Uriel was making a cutting gesture with his hand—as if slicing the
neck of the invisible head gripped by Mary's claw-like hand.
Venus
de Milo: Discovered
in 1820 on the island of Melos in the Cyclades(Greece) , this statue is
believed to depict Aphrodite, godess of
Love, known to the Romans as Venus. This masterpiece of Greek Marble sculpture
is dated from about 120 B.C.
End of Louvre
"In
its most specific interpretation, the pentacle symbolizes Venus –the goddess of
female sexual love and beauty. "The pentacle," Langdon clarified,
"is a pre-Christian symbol that relates to Nature worship. When male and
female were balanced, there was harmony in the world. When they were
unbalanced, there was chaos." “This pentacle is representative of the
female half of all things - a concept religious historians call the 'sacred
feminine' or the 'divine goddess.' Saunière, of all people, would know this."
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"The
Vitruvian Man," Langdon gasped. Saunière had created a life-sized replica of
Leonardo da Vinci's most famous sketch. Considered the most anatomically
correct drawing of its day, Da Vinci's The Vitruvian Man had become a
modern-day icon of culture, appearing on posters, mouse pads, and T-shirts
around the world. The celebrated sketch consisted of a perfect circle in which
was inscribed a nude male... his arms and legs outstretched in a naked spread
eagle. – At
Leonardo da Vinci Airport, Rome
high
atop the sloping rise of Montmartre, the graceful arabesque dome of Sacré-Coeur, its polished stone
glowing white like a resplendent sanctuary. -
Montmarte
Saint Sulpice Church
the
church's two bell towers rose like stalwart sentinels above the building's long
body. On either flank, a shadowy row of sleek buttresses jutted out like the
ribs of a beautiful beast.
The
Church of Saint-Sulpice, it is said, has the most
eccentric history of any building in Paris. Built over the ruins of an ancient
temple to the Egyptian goddess Isis, the church possesses an architectural
footprint matching that of Notre Dame to within inches. The sanctuary has
played host to the baptisms of the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire, as well as
the marriage of Victor Hugo. The attached seminary has a well-documented
history of unorthodoxy and was once the clandestine meeting hall for numerous
secret societies.
Saint-Sulpice was stark and cold, conveying an
almost barren quality reminiscent of the ascetic cathedrals of Spain. The lack
of decor made the interior look even more expansive, and as Silas gazed up into
the soaring ribbed vault of the ceiling, he imagined he was standing beneath
the hull of an enormous overturned ship.
"Formally
known as a pentagram or pentacle, as the ancients called it -this symbol is
considered both divine and magical by many cultures. “If you draw a pentagram, the lines
automatically divide themselves into segments according to the Divine
Proportion all equal PHI, making this symbol the ultimate expression of the
Divine Proportion. Hence, the five-pointed star has always been the symbol for
beauty and perfection associated with the goddess and the sacred
feminine."
Saint-Sulpice, like most churches, had been
built in the shape of a giant Roman cross. Its long central section—the
nave—led directly to the main altar, where it was transversely intersected by a
shorter section, known as the transept. The intersection of nave and transept
occurred directly beneath the main cupola and was considered the heart of the
church... her most sacred and mystical point.
Embedded
in the gray granite floor, a thin polished strip of brass glistened in the
stone... A golden line slanting across the church's floor. The line bore
graduated markings, like a ruler. Tourists, scientists, historians, and pagans
from around the world came to Saint-Sulpice to gaze upon this famous line. The Rose
Line. The brass marker in Saint-Sulpice was a memorial to the world's first
prime meridian, and although Greenwich
The
letters P & S in the small round windows – Priory of Sion
Church’s
reaction to the Da Vinci Code.
Slicing
across the main altar itself, the line looked to Silas like a slash wound
across a beautiful face. The strip cleaved the communion rail in two and then
crossed the entire width of the church, finally reaching the corner of the
north transept, where it arrived at the base of a most unexpected structure. A
colossal Egyptian obelisk. Here, the glistening Rose Line took a ninety-degree
vertical turn and continued directly up the face of the obelisk itself,
ascending thirty-three feet to the very tip of the pyramidical apex, where it
finally ceased.
"The
Priory keystone has been said to lie 'beneath the Sign of the Rose.' At the
base of the Sulpice obelisk. All the brothers had
concurred. On his knees now, Silas ran his hands across the stone floor. He saw
no cracks or markings to indicate a movable tile, so he began rapping softly
with his knuckles on the floor. Following the brass line closer to the obelisk,
he knocked on each tile adjacent to the brass line. Finally, one of them echoed
strangely. There's a hollow area beneath the floor! Silas smiled. His victims
had spoken the truth.
Epilogue
Langdon
stepped out of the Hotel Ritz into Place Vendôme
Walking
east on Rue des Petits Champs, Langdon felt a growing excitement.
He
turned south onto Rue Richelieu, where
the air grew sweet with the scent of blossoming jasmine from the stately
gardens of the Palais Royal.
He
found what he knew was there—several bronze medallions embedded in the ground
in a perfectly straight line. Each disk was five inches in diameter and
embossed with the letters N and S. Nord. Sud. He turned due south, letting his
eye trace the extended line formed by the medallions.
The
streets of Paris, Langdon had learned years ago, were adorned with 135 of these
bronze markers, embedded in sidewalks, courtyards, and streets, on a
north-south axis across the city. The earth's original prime meridian. The
first zero longitude of the world. Paris's ancient Rose Line.
La Pyramide Inversée - Directly before him, hanging down from
above, gleamed the inverted pyramid—a breathtaking V-shaped contour of glass. The
Chalice. Langdon's eyes traced its narrowing form downward to its tip, suspended only
six feet above the floor. There, directly beneath it, stood the tiny structure.
A miniature pyramid. Only three feet tall. The only structure in this colossal
complex that had been built on a small scale.
A
miniature pyramid. Only three feet tall. The only structure in this colossal
complex that had been built on a small scale. Langdon's manuscript, while
discussing the Louvre's elaborate collection of goddess art, had made passing
note of this modest pyramid. "The miniature structure itself protrudes up
through the floor as though it were the tip of an iceberg—the apex, of an
enormous, pyramidical vault, submerged below like a hidden chamber. Illuminated
in the soft lights of the deserted entresol, the two pyramids pointed at one
another, their bodies perfectly aligned, their tips almost touching.
Conclusion
The
Chalice above. The Blade below. The blade and chalice guarding o'er Her gates.
Langdon heard Marie Chauvel's words. One day it will dawn on
you. He was standing beneath the ancient
Rose Line, surrounded by the work of masters.
What better place for Saunière to keep watch? Now at last, he
sensed he understood the true meaning of the Grand Master's verse. Raising his
eyes to heaven, he gazed upward through the glass to a glorious, star-filled
night. She rests at last beneath the starry skies. Like the murmurs of spirits
in the darkness, forgotten words echoed. The quest for the Holy Grail is the
quest to kneel before the bones of Mary Magdalene. A journey to pray at the
feet of the outcast one.