For those fans of "The Da Vinci Code" (among whose multitudes I do not number myself), who might be interested in a "Da Vinci" tour of Paris but are not prepared to pay an outrageous amount for it, the Michelin site has an interesting and useful article.

http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichel...s-tourisme.htm

Entitled, "Paris--mightier than the Da Vinci Code", it takes the reader to the main sites of the novel, while providing an acerbic commentary on many of the errors by the novel's celebrated author and alleged plagiarist.

Thanks for this. But don't bother disavowing yourself as a "fan" of the book or the author...nobody is going to think the more or the less of you one way or the other.

In fact, some might say you are just helping the whole thing along by posting this. The only people who allow themselves to get "angry" over the "alleged plaigarism" etc. are those who didn't profit from this phenomenon.

I think that the only people who are angry about the plagiarism are two of the three authors of "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" who have brought a suit against Dan Brown before the High Court in London. They are, however, profiting from the phenomenon through a new edition of their book.

Don't follow directions in the book around Paris, Brown got some of the locations wrong. He also made some continuity errors in his plot that a good editor should have caught. However I'm glad I read the book for the laugh-out-loud ending. I must be the only one who found it so ridiculous.

I'm not commenting on the merits of the book as I haven't read it, but Paris Walks, which is often touted here, offers a Da Vinci Code tour for 12E.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...aVinciCode.htm

Despite the author's claim of accuracy, I found it difficult to take any part of it seriously after seeing how many mistakes he made on Paris alone. I got the impression that he had never actually been to the city, and perhaps he had never even looked at a map.

Beyond that the book was rather boring. There were so many puzzles and they were solved so quickly by the characters in the book that I thought I was watching a rerun of Batman and Robin figuring out one of the Riddler's puzzles.

You're not alone, scootoir--the ending was not the only place where I laughed out loud. My favorite was the scene where the albino buy bursts through the doors of the ER carrying the priest in his arms.

If I were teaching literature I'd have students read the book to see just what lack of character development does to a plot.

Let's not turn this into another DaVinci Code debate thread (and TRY to remember - it's a FICTION book before getting your bloomers bunched up)

Anyway, in addition to the tour laverendrye mentions, thre is also one from Fodor's at http://www.fodors.com/features/nfdis...avincicode.cfm

Brilliant Underhill! How not to write a novel.

I can't believe the number of highly-educated people I know who fell for this "da Vinci" mania and who have gone on these tours. May as well go visit Area 51 in Roswell.

I think I get irritated WAY too easily, but that book really did it for me. Badly written and riddled with historical errors, despite pretensions of being factual. I'd never have bought it myself, but I was given it for Christmas and never have been able to resist reading any book the is in my house. Including "Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze" while I was in college. Actually, "Young Fu" was better-written than "Davinci" and probably more factual.

Actually, this book cheered me up in a way, because if something that badly written can make a ton of money for its author, then there still might be hope for me.

And "Young Fu" won the Newbery Award for children's literature.

No, Scootoir, you are not the only person who found the book absurd, but amusing. Portions of it--especially when the albino burst into the ER carrying the body of the priest--remind me of "It was a dark and stormy night..."