The statements below by Antoine Captier (also made sometimes by his wife, Claire Corbu) are spurious and cannot be trusted – because Marie Dénarnaud lived in abject poverty since Saunière’s death in 1917 and she accumulated over 31,000 francs in debt – that was only settled by Noël Corbu in 1946.

The statements made by Antoine Corbu below are pure invention – and there are no first hand statements originating from Marie Dénarnaud herself (in writing) that she ever said things like “You walk on gold ...”.

These statements only originated from Noël Corbu in the French regional newspapers of the late 1950s.

Antoine Captier cannot be trusted any more than any other of the many charlatans and conspiracy theorists; he obtains substantial income from the Rennes-le-Château Tourist Industry.

Also, the claims about the Baluster only originate from a 1961 French documentary and do not date from 1891. During the 1990s this baluster did not have a cavity when it was displayed and Marcel Captier gave demonstrations of how it opened. The cavity was only put into the baluster when it went back on display in the museum in 2017 (assuming the baluster displayed today is the same one that was displayed during the 1990s).

The subject matter of Rennes-le-Château is strictly entertainment – it has nothing in common with historical facts.


Antoine CAPTIER: “My family moved to Rennes-le-Château from at least the seventeenth century. Some of my ancestors were men of noble confidence of the village. Sometimes they were owners of the castle but mayor's of the village several times.

When I was little, it was said that the priest had found a treasure through the papers given to him by my great-grandfather. Note that these documents had perhaps been worthless.

I personally knew mademoiselle Marie [Denarnaud], but I was young.

The research began in earnest with Mr. Noel CORBU. This was because she [Marie Denarnaud] often said to the people of the village “You walk on gold ...”