Travel

Tony Clayton-Lea brings us on a cinematic hotspot journey across Europe.

Following the trail of the Da Vinci Code
We're no sooner in France - the city where the characters of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code begin their journey, to find the direct descendents of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene - than we journey to Chateau de Villette. It's a picture-postcard residence located about 30 miles from Paris, and which in the book is the home of Holy Grail expert Sir Leigh Teabing (played by Sir Ian McKellen in the movie).

Next stop is Paris, and the Hotel Ritz, where the book's Professor Robert Langdon (portrayed in the movie by Tom Hanks) stayed - it was from The Ritz that Langdon was summoned to the Louvre museum, where an elderly art historian/curator was murdered. Following a quick visit to the Louvre, where we caught a glimpse of the Mona Lisa smiling enigmatically, we caught the Eurostar train to London, where within a few hours we have seen the likes of Westminster Abbey (which refused the filmmakers access).

Next we visited King's College (where Langdon and Sophie Neveu, played by Audrey Tatou in the movie, decipher an important clue in connection with their mission), and, finally, the National Gallery, where we see Leonardo Da Vinci's second 'working' of his painting, Virgin of the Rocks. According to Brown’s book, it contains a number of pagan symbols. And then it's off to Lincoln.

Why Lincoln, you might justifiably ask. In relation to Brown's book, Lincoln is something of a misstep; in relation to the movie, however, it's an essential part of the process. We check into the Cathedral city's White Hart Hotel - the very same establishment that Hanks (and family), Tatou and others stayed in when they were filming in the nearby Lincoln Cathedral (which doubled as Westminster).

We then visited the Cathedral and Burghley House (England's largest and grandest house of the first Elizabethan age, which was used for several scenes relating to the movie's Papal plotline). After that it was back to the hotel to try and squeeze information out of the hotel staff: which room did Hanks stay in? What did he have for breakfast? Did he place his script in the overnight safe? The hotel staff must have taken their version of the Hippocratic Oath, because they weren't saying a word. There was nothing else for it - we'd have to eat in the same local restaurant that Sir Ian McKellen and the film's director Ron Howard visited. The Old Bakery is a charming new/old world eatery that inspired both Howard and the erstwhile Gandalf to leave not just a tip but also praise for its food. Its to-be-auctioned copy of The Da Vinci Code, which was signed not only by the movie's main players, but also its author.

The following day, we arrive at the destination of the main inspiration behind Brown's blockbuster - Rosslyn Chapel, near Edinburgh. Brown makes great if dubious claims regarding Rosslyn's many (supposed) connections between the Freemasons, the Knights Templar, the Holy Grail and architectural blueprints in far flung places (Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, for one). It would take a platoon of symbologists, cryptanalysts and religious historians to decipher all the possible connections and to make sense of it all. What's beyond doubt is that Rosslyn Chapel itself is truly beautiful - a compact place of worship that merits a stand-alone visit at any time of the year.