Henri de Lénoncourt lived in Rue Lobineau, Paris; preferring to call himself Henri Lobineau. A numismatist and collector of buttons (that were really hidden microphones), he was also the great-great uncle of Philippe de Chérisey. They first met each other on 22 August 1977.

Henri de Lénoncourt travelled throughout the Rennes-le-Château area between 1958-1964 collecting old coins – tape-recorder in one hand and a camera in the other – asking the local inhabitants many questions and recording all the answers. He was the author of the Lobineau Papers (paraphrasing the description of Pierre Plantard by René Descadeillas in his book, Mythologie du Trésor de Rennes, 1974).

Lénoncourt was a friend of Leo Schidlof; Myriam David taught history to Henri de Lénoncourt’s grandson in 1954.

Henri de Lénoncourt also said that philosophy teacher Philippe Toscan du Plantier was arrested for drug-trafficking in April 1967; adding that the Priory of Sion was really founded by Jean-Stephane de Habsbourg (also known as Monsieur de Chambord) – before mentioning that Simone de Beauvoir claimed it was founded (in 1934) by Lionel de Roulet in her book La force de l’âge, 1960.

Henri de Lénoncourt was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery on Thursday 1 June 1978 in the family vault.

(Philippe de Chérisey, “L’Énigme de Rennes”, 1978)