Bérenger Saunière in Lyon

 

One Saunière can hide another

The mystery of Saunière has often been identified with the mystery of the village he was priest of: Rennes-le-Château. This is a major assumption, which has not received its proper analysis as of yet. In our understanding, the mystery of Saunière is not necessarily that of Rennes-le-Château. Specifically, it is not our dogma that Saunière had to be in the village all the time. Though the more “fanciful” theories have him travel to Paris – without any evidence – any of his other voyages, to Perpignan, Durban-Corbières and possibly Budapest are received with scepticism. Though it is true that there is no written evidence for these voyages, it is known that if he did travel to these towns, he had legitimate reasons to do so: in the case of Perpignan and Budapest, he had bank accounts there. As to his voyage to Paris, we have no clear reason why he should have gone there, except the theories of him having uncovered a “secret” in his church. But all of this is based on hearsay.
What is known is that Saunière was sometimes away from the village, leaving his maid Marie Dénarnaud with a stash of letters she had to post in his absence, so that those addressed would think he was in Rennes-le-Château when he was not. It is strong evidence that suggests that the mystery of our village priest is not at all to do with Rennes-le-Château, but with another location – or at least a mystery that involves other locations.

The tree and the forest of Saunière

When Saunière went on some of these private missions, we know that he was absent for only short periods of time, so that not too many people would notice. The secretive nature of these escapades begs the question what he was doing – and where he was doing it. What is known, is that Saunière went to the Rhone-Alps region, specifically to Lyon.
We will present the evidence shortly, but before doing so, we need to note that this evidence was first presented a decade ago (1995). At the time, it was received by some “experts” as “doubtful” – even though they were more than willing to embrace the unsupported voyages to Paris. To support their scepticism, they argued that Saunière noted “everything” down in his notebooks, and that no such trips were discovered in there. The same, I would argue, goes for the Paris excursion.
Still, those wishing to doubt the evidence said that as the notebooks of Saunière showed no evidence of an invoice for a train ticket to Lyon, Saunière obviously did not go. I would ask any private individual whether he has ever received an invoice for a train ticket. The answer is of course not.
The allegation is specifically tedious, for even though they say he went to Paris, these same “researchers” argue he did not go to Lyon. Right. To go to Paris, Saunière needed to take the train. There were no direct routes, and Saunière would actually have had to change at… Lyon-Perrache, Lyon’s train station. So… For anyone arguing that Saunière went to Paris, it is positive he could go to Lyon.

The not noticed absence of two booksellers

But let us not rely solely on logic; we have evidence to show that Saunière went to Lyon. First, however, an oddity: most of the library of Berenger Saunière was purchased after his death by, at least, two Lyons bookshops: the first is the Gacon bookshop. The second is the Derain-Raclet bookshop, situated at 81 rue Bosssuet at that time. With the liquidation of the Derain stock, a lucky purchaser found several books marked as "François Béranger Saunière, Priest at: Aude, town of Rennes."
These works were entitled:
1) "the Prophecy of the Popes allotted to S. Malachy". By Joseph Main.
2) "History of the Large Forests of Gaule and Old France". By L.F. Alfred Maury.
3) "Celtic Monuments. Or Research on the Worship of the Stones. Preceded by a note on the Celts and Druids, and followed Celtic etymologies ". By Mr. Camby.
Even though the library of Berenger Saunière is of an excellent level, it is neither unique in its kind, nor requires it to be indexed or coveted, at all cost by all the French professionals of the book trade, upon his death…
Let us add that the notoriety of Berenger Saunière was geographically specific, extremely localised. In truth, he was completely unknown beyond Limoux (if that far)!

The two booksellers in Lyon could therefore not have known of the existence of Saunière and his library, except by having met him personally in Lyon, or perhaps by certain remarks exchanged in certain circles of Lyon society. It is thus essential that there were preliminary contacts in place between the priest and the Lyonnaise booksellers.

Where the second-hand trade still plays in our favour

An old amateur from Lyon told us that he had a certain number of documents in his possession that were related to the Rennes-le-Château affair. It involved several documents and letters addressed to Saunière, not in his residence in Rennes-le-Château, but to an address in Lyon: Rue des Macchabées.
The documents can be divided into two categories. One is a set of printed papers, relating to the philosophy of an organisation that is only present in Lyon. The second category are correspondences, of various sources, sometimes local, but always addressed to Saunière at his Lyon address. These include short letters, normal length letters and thirteen invoices, including two about very technical details on photographic equipment.
What is missing to bring these documents into their proper framework are the letters from Saunière, who in some of these has clearly instigated the contacts. He asked the question, others gave him the answer. Still, the evidence clearly shows that Saunière had a mail drop in Lyon.

Invoices for a vehicle

Of primary interest are two invoices, which attest that Saunière, while in Lyon, had access to a means of transportation; he rented two vehicles, reserved for periods of a few consecutive days. The entry, as one could expect, does not detail where our priest went to; when you rent a car today, you do not need to tell the agency where you are going to drive it to. The agency Saunière used at the time had the same policy and perhaps it was one of the reasons why Saunière selected them.
The first invoice covers the periods in May and June 1898, then in September 1898 and finally from April to July 1899. The second invoice is for a few days in May 1900, and a day in June of the same year.
We are not arguing that Saunière was in Lyon throughout this entire period, because that is likely impossible. Though Saunière could be gone for a few days at a time, an absence of a week or more would be noticed. His parishioners would ask why the mass was not said on Sunday and whereas the occasional absence could be explained, the parish needed him there most of the time.
As a consequence, it is quite difficult – neigh impossible – to state at what specific dates Saunière will have been in the region. But the fact that he was invoiced for the rent of a vehicle is proof that Saunière was in Lyon. Full stop. End of discussion. Furthermore, these two invoices may not be the total amount of invoices. There may have been others, for different periods.

More information

There are two intriguing letters in this batch of documents. The first is dated July 26, 1899, from L. Joux, rue Denfen-Rochereau in Paris. It makes reference to sending of catalogues and tariffs. The second is dated July 29, 1899, containing more information, in response to what seems to be a specific request by Saunière.
The subject are powerful lenses and other photographic material that is outside the interest of the average or even expert photographer; only a few professional photographers would have a need for such tools – and why Saunière has a need for such material is not clear. The exotic nature of these tools is underlined by the fact that one object, a “binocular telescope” is of such an unusual model that Joux informs Saunière that he himself will have to order it.

Saunière’s secrecy

We are certain Saunière went to Lyon. It is obvious that he did not go there for tourism. He was doing something there, something he wanted to keep secret, and something for which he used a Lyon address. There are some possibilities why he chose to do this: the information was specific to his Lyon business, whatever that was; he tried to keep the letters secret from the postman in Rennes-le-Château and/or his maid, Marie Denarnaud. If the latter, we need to wonder what it was, for it is often said that she knew “everything”. Was there something he did not confide to her – or was it perhaps something that may have involved her or her family, though perhaps not in a beneficial manner?
We note that Saunière travelled outside of Lyon, but within “easy distance”, which would be in line with the vehicle he rented. He also used his Lyon address to correspond with a company in Paris, asking details regarding highly specialised photographic equipment, normally only used by map makers.

The incomplete notebooks

Irrelevant of what its promoters try to infer: the notebooks of Saunière are not all-inclusive; various researchers, including Antoine Captier, have noted that at least 80 items which we know Saunière paid for, are not listed in the notebooks. This means that Saunière did not list all items – or perhaps a second set of notebooks existed, which detailed his “secret accounts”.
Some may argue that he only developed an interest in this photographic equipment on a whim. He ordered postcards of Rennes-le-Château to be made and then sold them. He could have developed a sudden interest in photography and eccentricity alone could have made him buy exotic equipment. True… but if this was the case, if everything is known about Saunière, why did he have a Lyon mail drop, and use it quite intensively – and use it to order this equipment, rather than his normal address in Rennes-le-Château?
It is clear that Saunière had a “private life” – a second life – which he lived in the city of Lyon. Perhaps he had other such locations elsewhere; but at present, we can only talk about Lyon, for that is where the evidence shows he was. Even if some were to speculate that the Lyon address was nothing but a mail drop, the invoices make it clear that he was present in Lyon, and this on numerous occasions, and for business that seems to have taken him outside of the city itself. The question is: what was Saunière doing there?

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