The claim that Abbé Saunière visited St Sulpice in Paris lies without any foundation in fact and simply represents the mythmaking of various charlatans from the 1960s. Quoting from the 1996 BBC 2 documentary, History of a Mystery:

“In fact there's no evidence that Saunière visited St Sulpice or celebrated Mass there, according to a letter from the Seminary's archivist”

It has further been rumoured that one of the charlatans who invented the fake history of Abbé Saunière, Philippe de Chérisey, stated in his novel CIRCUIT that a stained-glass window in the Chapel of the Angels in St Sulpice depicted an angel carrying a Blue Apple (Eugène Delacroix, Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise). The Stained-Glass Window was replaced in 1901 and believers wonder how Philippe de Chérisey could have known about this.

As can be realised from this subject matter – everything has got an alternative and prosaic explanation. Philippe de Chérisey could simply have been making it up that the original Stained-Glass Window depicted a Blue Apple (it no longer existed). Indeed, where is the evidence that the original Apple was “Blue”?

A preliminary drawing of the Stained-Glass Window in St Sulpice by Delacroix surfaced in 1997 and it does not depict the Angel holding an Apple, but rather the Angel clenching his fist (highlighted detail below).

Several other drawings by Delacroix exist of Adam and Eve Expelled From Paradise that also do not contain any “Blue Apple” (for example in the book by Alfred Robaut, L'Oeuvre Complet de Eugène Delacroix: Peintures, Dessins, Gravures, Lithographies, Charavay Frères, Paris, 1885).

Furthermore, Philippe de Chérisey produced several versions of CIRCUIT as well as the copy that exists in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (this version mentions a “Blue Stained Glass Window” and the Delacroix concerned in this version is that of the painting Jacob Wrestling With An Angel). Slightly different versions of CIRCUIT were in the possession of Louis Vazart (Vazart collaborated with Philippe de Chérisey) – and here it should be noted that Louis Vazart – towards the end of his life in 2005 – was reported to have disowned his books and tried to destroy as many copies of them as possible. Vazart recanted of the myth of the Priory of Sion.

Of course, nothing can prevent the believers from believing – even if Philippe de Chérisey’s story was originally about a “Blue Stained Glass Window” before it was changed into a “Blue Apple” held by an Angel.

The same can be said about Philippe de Chérisey's family being related to Theodore de Bezae – was this mere coincidence or did Philippe de Chérisey really know about it? For several years believers were arguing that Philippe de Chérisey “knew” that his family was related to Theodore de Bezae (The text of the first small parchment was copied from the Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis).

The believers are unambiguous – Philippe de Chérisey knew that he was related to Theodore de Bezae. But cannot offer any proof.

The believers are unambiguous – Delacroix depicted a Blue Apple in St Sulpice. But cannot offer any proof.

French author Pierre Jarnac reproduced part of a letter he received dated 22 May 1985 from Pierre Plantard: “You need to know only that I have no involvement whatsoever with the ‘deathless prose’ of Monsieur Philippe de Chérisey, who was the co-author with Monsieur Paul Rouelle of the book COURT-CIRCUIT, lodged with the Bibliothèque nationale in December 1984 or January 1985, which dragged my name through the mud. The Marquis de Chérisey was a good friend of mine from university days, but I very often disapprove of his books which are really quite bizarre.” (Les Archives de Rennes-le-Château, page 550, Tome 2, Editions Bélisane: Nice, 1988)