Take 'The Da Vinci Code' tour

The latest travel fad in Europe is visiting the sites mentioned in the bestseller. But not all are happy with the attention.

PARIS - It began with a prophecy at Paris' Saint-Sulpice church. An American visitor pressed a thick volume into the pastor's hands and said, "My father, this book is going to cause you many troubles."

The book was The Da Vinci Code, before it became a worldwide bestseller. And the visitor's prediction came true.

Dan Brown's mystical thriller has spawned a mini-industry in European travel, with enthralled readers touring the locations in its plot to unravel its enigmas. From Scotland to France, they are scrutinizing old sites with new questions.

In Paris, fans ask: Are there really 666 panes of glass in the Louvre's pyramid? (One official Louvre document on the Web put the number at 673.)

And at Saint-Sulpice, featured repeatedly in the novel, they come to snap photos of the church's obelisk, the spot where the book's murderous albino monk starts a quest for the Holy Grail. (The plot gets only stranger from there.)

For the church's pastor, the Rev. Paul Roumanet, this newfound fame has proved a headache. He's fielded so many questions that he finally posted a sign to debunk the book's claims. It starts, "Contrary to the fantastical allegations in a recent best seller. . . ."

"It's very unpleasant, everything that (Brown) scooped out of the trash cans of history," Roumanet said in an interview.

The Da Vinci Code is a mix of code-breaking, art history, secret societies, religion and lore, all wrapped up in short, fast-paced chapters. Several other books have tried to debunk its contentious allegations, namely that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and sired a bloodline.

The novel recently became the No. 1 fiction book in France, where intellectuals have dissected it on television and in editorial pages. In the United States, the book is No. 1 on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list, on which it has been a fixture for 76 weeks.

The novel cites as many locations as a travel guide, prompting tourism Web site fodors.com to offer a Da Vinci itinerary. The guide offers historical tidbits about the novel's settings, from the Temple Church in London to Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland to the Ritz Hotel in Paris.

In London, even Madonna got the bug. British Tours Ltd. says it recently took the pop star and her husband, writer-director Guy Ritchie, to see London sites mentioned in the book.

In Paris, at least three tour companies are in on the fad. Clients - mostly Americans - pay handsomely for guided tours. Some cost as much as $370 per group.

Each company offers a different take on Brown's novel. Art history lovers might try a tour from a company called Paris Muse. Its guides are graduate students who attacked the book like a research project. They came up with a 100-page glossary so they could be prepared for esoteric questions.

"When we were doing it, we said, this is so much more fun than writing our dissertations," said the company's founder, Ellen McBreen, a doctoral student at New York University who specializes in Henri Matisse.

Jean-Manuel Traimond's Paris tour might appeal to people bent on debunking the book. A Frenchman, Traimond was incensed by Brown's artistic liberties with French geography and historical facts.

"On Page 1 I started to jump up and down with shock and indignation," said Traimond, who works for the company Escape in France.

Brown "invents bridges that don't exist. He puts trees where there are no trees," Traimond said. "He claims Godefroy de Bouillon was the king of France, and he never was. . . . It's like claiming Paul Revere was president of the United States."

Traimond put his outrage to good use: "I like to call it my Da Vinci Con tour."

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