For six years, the late Jean-Luc Robin, ran the Hotel de la Tour, the hotel started by Noel Corbu in the Villa Bethania in Rennes-le-Château. Originally built by Abbé Saunière to lavishly entertain his guests, Corbu converted it into a hotel in 1955. Robin ran the hotel for six years (1994-2000). Though not the owner, he did live in the Villa, following in Corbu’s footsteps, those of Marie Dénarnaud (Saunière’s housekeeper) and Henri Buthion who had bought the hotel from Corbu in 1965. An illustrious series of people indeed.

Jean-Luc died unexpectedly on March 12th 2008, on the night that his party won the local elections in Rennes-le-Château. It would have made him the mayor of the village he had loved so much.

Like no other, Klaas van Urk knitted all the known and lesser known facts together in a compelling and believable account of what really happened to the Ark and its contents. He made a number of remarkable discoveries along his journeys. He discovered the ruins of a Templar Château on the mount of Montferrand near Alet-les-Bains of which no-one believed it actually existed. Another scoop was linking the Knight Relief over the entrance of the Bieta Mariam in Ethiopia, to the almost identical right panel of the Dalle des Chevaliers (Knight’s Stone) found by Bérenger Saunière in Rennes-le-Château. Known as the Indiana Jones of the lowlands, Klaas van Urk is the real deal, including the wax coat and the hat.

When it came out, City of Secrets, Patrice Chaplin’s provocative book, unveiled an entirely new twist to the conventional mystery and in the process delivered the most refreshing work in the genre in years. Oh, and it has this love story. Chaplin draws on a life time of esoteric experience, research and associations, including friendships with Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí and Umberto Eco, to offer new insights into old enigmas.