Rennes-le-Château

Rand's work is important not because it demonstrates a medieval Templar grail Cathar order, but because it helped make the south of France into an esoteric landscape where heresy, grail and suppressed tradition could be woven together.

After the Second World War, the Templar story increasingly merged with the René Le Château, Pierre Plantard's modern Priory of Sion, the fabrication of the Priory of Sion, hidden dynasties and alternative Christianity.

Bejant, Lay and Lincoln's The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail in 1982 combined Templars, the Grail, Merovingians, the Priory of Sion and Aegisus' bloodline into a hugely influential pseudo-historical synthesis.

Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code later globalized much of that structure as fiction.

Alfred Renan, the famous biblical scholar, was associated with some sopes.

Father Saunière comes back to the Languedoc after going up to Paris, and he appears to be filthy rich, and he starts renovating this tiny little church in Rennes-le-Château, the village that he's the curé of.

His bishop... kind of turns a blind eye until Father Saunier dies, and his father confessor, who heard his last confession, was so appalled by what he heard, he would not grant him absolution.

So something happened with Saunier, and the reason I mention this Rennes-le-Chateau business is because Saunier is involved with a lady who is a member of the Haute Poule family.