So we meet Philippe, a specialist in the Saunière mystery and its treasure, who must show my client kabbalistic signs in the church of Limoux and in the cemetery. I do the translation and find myself with these two characters, each as strange as the other…
The Philippe in question would have spoken in a dream to Jesus who would have given him elements to find part of the treasure of Rennes-le-Château. The legend says that Marie-Madeleine, after the death of Christ, would have arrived in Narbonne with their son and the Ark of the Covenant of the Jews which would be hidden in the region. Saunière would have discovered part of this treasure.
In the evening, I have dinner with my “rabbi” at his hotel to keep him company. We start the meal and the conversation becomes incredible…
He talks about his life. His rich and deceased parents left him a large fortune managed by an administrator, which allows him to travel and live well. He has always had personality problems, has been consulting a psychiatrist for years.
In Boston he lives and walks around dressed as a woman and dreams of having an operation to really become a woman but his administrator refuses to pay him for the operation… He tells me that he has all the clothes in his suitcase to dress as a woman and that he is thinking of doing it, asks me my advice…
I answer him that to cross the border with a man’s face on his passport, it is better to stay as a rabbi rather than with a female wig…
The next day, we go with our specialist to Rennes-le-Château, Abbé Saunière’s lair. You must know that several famous people came on pilgrimage here: Hitler and the Nazis who thought they had found the Ark of the Covenant, gold diggers from various countries and the last known… François Mitterrand in the early years of his presidency.
We first visit the church where a devil supports the stoup and it is at the foot of the altar that the Abbot would have found old parchments indicating the place of the treasure and which have disappeared.
The presbytery is a residence flanked by a tower like a castelet, filled with kabbalistic signs explained by our specialist. ” It smells of sulfur said my rabbi with a grimace.
Fortunately, I did not translate for him all the madness that the famous exegete told me, otherwise he would have found him crazier than him…
I thank our guide, we return to Carcassonne. The next day, I bring the Bostonian back to the airport. He would have liked me to accompany him to Cologne afraid of getting lost in the corridors of correspondence.
He simply leaves me, still dressed as a rabbi without even the generosity of a tip. I go home happy that this weekend, well finished, remains forever in my memory. »
Patrick Bardet (APST)