Arcadia Discussion Zone

1) Foreword by Claude Jacquemart; page 19;

"What Berenger Sauniere discovered is now safeguarded in a strongroom in the basement of a curious villa in Switzerland."

What's the truth of this statement ?

What was the discovery ?

Where's the villa ? (Not that I've any intention of visiting it ! )

Sierre is my guess - 22 route de Sion.

TCP

It's not true AFAIK - it's basically copies of what they want. From what I can gather it was Paoli that was involved but in the end it might have de Cherisey that set the whole chase in order.
It was designed to humiliate Chaumeil and provided him with dud copies from the Romanian stash, chaumeil reported it and it was then revealed. Obviously Chaumeil has never let go of the whole episode but he has point about certain other artifacts.



You never read a word I post, do you?



Headquarters of Dr. Evil and his band of Merry men.

Wasn't it somewhere near lake geneva?

Thanks. Sorry I missed what you wrote...very busy time I'm afraid. Ahhh!!! the Romanian treasure...that was presumably the alleged loot that de Sede tried to interest Henry Lincoln (and probably the BBC with its zillions of tv license-payers cash) in. What a naughty bunch !

Thanks, now to Google Earth....

Surely not so !!!..I mean, Chaumeil is regularly quoted by Paul Smith and the Priory of Sion.com..... and Mr Smith and PoS.com are sources for David Aaronovitch's book about debunking conspiracy theories...

Claude Jacquemart was an OAS operative and his credibilite is even worse than that of Chaumeil, if that is possible. Chaumeil was almost sent to prison for his wrongdoing and manipulation when he was supposed to be an expert for the court, in the affair of the Temple Solaire.

That's fine, if you're going to draw pentagrams all over it...

TCP

Thanks, I was about to ask who this Claude Jacquemart dude was.

Hi Pilrig,

Pilrig wrote



I found Dave's book very poorly reasoned...doesn't he work for 'intelligence services' now?

Regards,

Spartacus

I enjoyed the book, but the tenor of the book was that if you don't accept official verdicts then you're nuts.
I thought in the chapter on the death of Dr Kelly he deliberately got hold of the wrong end of the stick: even if Kelly committed suicide he was driven to that act by the attack dogs of the Blair government.
And as I sort of hinted at in my previous post if he's going to rely on a source like Paul Smith for the HBHG chapter what does that say about his sources for other chapters ?

Hi Pilrig

Pilrig wrote:



Exactly, which is very poor reasoning IMHO




Again, exactly. IMHO he deliberately got the wrong end in many places...



Again, again, exactly. I thought some of his 'reasoning' was beyond absurd. Given his former stance, IMHO he is simply a stooge now...

Regards,

Spartacus

Are you enjoying Chaumeil's PoS book, Pilrig?

Yes I am, I'm getting through it slowly, other things get in the way eg. work, sleep, Mrs Brown's Boys

I recently bought Richard Leigh's "Grey Magic" and the one by his sister Liz Greene about Nostradamus. God knows when I'll get round to reading them.

I think you'll enjoy the other two books a bit more. Strictly speaking Chaumeil's book was a difficult but telling read. Lot's of esoterica and innuendo. It required a bit of research plus being it's was originally written in French you can see the problems with the translation.

Grey Magic and The vine you just need to know your subject matter beforehand. I really enjoyed what I have read of "grey magic" just because it's a more personal book. It's semi-autobiographical, and get to see what really motivated Leigh and how he was recruited and why. I also think it was well written.

For me Liz Greene's speciality is astrology which has always bored me a bit and I found it a bit unsettling in the way it depicted personal characteristics of Notradamus but I know that's a personal view.
I found alot of the same comments from the book that interested Richard, caught my eye as well, Richard did a breakdown review of the book on another thread.
So there is a lot common interests to be found among the subject matter. I thought the way Plantard was introduced as intermediary to more powerful interests was interesting too.

I'm really happy for you Pilrig that you are reading these books, I think it's a bit of eye opener but it's also a really interesting way to get to know how others deal with the subject matter.
It's really about 3 people's stories about their involvement in RLC using three very seperate styles.

Pilrig, Mrs Browns boys is the best thing to come out of Ireland, its hillarious.
have you seen any of the live shows? i have been to a few but you have to get the tickets really quick because they sell out so fast.

Not the live show, the only way you'll get a ticket for those is to mug a ticket holder. But we were at the Beeb in Glasgow last night watching the filming of an episode ht. Hilarious, and the hilarity (and the effing) continued during the breaks between takes. Brilliant.

Thanks I'll look forward to reading them --- when I get round to it !! - I've still to read Geneset and Rex Deus amongst a disorderly queue of books.

Re Nostradamus: every time that name is mentioned I think of that house in Alet les Bains and the carvings on its beams.


Richard Leigh: according to Henry Lincoln Richard Leigh never visited RLC, which I think was a pity. Never mind Carcassonnne, one MUST visit RLC at least once in one's life !


I'm going to have a look at the other thread about Chaumeil's book, I'm not sure that I read all the postings on it. And I hope to pose more questions about the book.

Yes, indeed; from earlier this week ...



... when Alet was looking very lovely in the sunshine.



Hope you enjoy the book. Lots of allusions to the RLC mystery in there.

IMHO I thought Rex Deus was a really relatable book in that it's purely propoganda and based on premises we've debunked here. In other words I think it had a shelf life which is passed.

I haven't heard or read Geneset but I just checked and it looked very interesting.



I don't think I really added to the conversation because i think Chaumeil requires a bit of background research. In other words it's still a work in progress.

I also found the multi-faith issue required a little bit of legwork which takes time.

It involves a lot of de Cherisey's work which you know.... so in some ways the real author of the information is unable to challenge any conclusions made.

So I'll be interested to hear any further questions you do have on the book and if I can help I'll try.

Geneset, by David Wood and Ian Campbell, is the follow-up to Wood's Genisis.

Rex Deus, I remember on my first visit to RLC in 2002, a poster of that book was pinned to the door of a house, I later learned the house was that of Graham Simmans.

I've wanted to read Genisis for so long. Just haven't gotten around to getting it. It's quoted and referenced quite a bit. Maybe I can get both books at the same time.

Re Genisis, it's important first to read the foreword by Henry Lincoln before reading the rest of the book. He admires Wood's work as regards the geometry and mapping, but very much steers clear of Wood's conclusions.

Back to Monsieur Chaumeil's holiday.. I mean opus:

2) pages 36- 38: Leon Fontan, a researcher from the Alsace area, had a look for the treasure in May 1971, even though he didn't find anything he lodged three certified reports with a Mr Gastoux, a Limoux lawyer. The three areas being the castle at Bezu, Campagne-sur-Aude and Luc-sur Aude.
Despite this he came back to the area, and was interviewed in Feb, 1972, claiming that Sauniere's 'treasure' was not Visigothic but belonged to the Templars of Bezu. It was buried 4 kilometers away from the village 'as the crow files' and 15 metres deep on a hillside (ruler and compass, anyone ? !).
M. Fontan is quoted: " In a few months time you will know whether I am right or wrong. Anyway, my decoding pursuit indicates the existence of a crypt that was completely sealed. The documents I have come to examine suggest that the closure of this underground area built in the rock in the hillside was done before the end of the 13th century, around 1292. Of course the crypt might be empty. But the information provided on the stele and tombstone of the Marchioness of Blanchefort endorses that found on the steles of Arles-sur-Tech." He reckons the the crypt is nothing more than a Templar armory, so this is the secret of the Blancheforts, Bigou and Sauniere ! And Leon Fontan claims he's the first person to find it again ! M. Fontan mentions future plans to excavate this crypt.
Now, I've read most of the (admittedly) Englsih language books on RLC, but I've never heard of this Fontan guy before. No more mention of Fontan's future dig in the book other than on page 91 when Chaumeil tells us that on Jan 1971 (!!!!) he informs Plantard about Fontan's explorations. Plantard replies that he has no right to search and 'besides, we know very well where everything is'.

So what became of Mr Fontan and his dig ? It's curious that Leon Fontan is exploring the RLC countryside around the same time as Henry Lincoln and the BBC team, and I believe the Rev Lionel Fanthorpe was in the area also around this time. A wonder they didn't all bump into each other ?

In the 70s, large numbers of self-styled researchers bumped into each other all the time and even formed loose teams, to give a semblance of organization to the destruction.

Ask yourself, what would be the value of an armoury sealed in 1292.. in Bigou's time?... in Sauniere's time? While you are at it, ask yourself why the tiny handful of templars in the area would have an armoury, much less the need to conceal it, in 1292?

It would probably only start gaining monetary value in our time, as collectible antiques become scarce and demand rises.

Chaumeil is one of the most unreliable sources one could find on almost any topic, with the possible exception of his foreword contributor.