YET ANOTHER EXPLANATION of the so-called Rennes-le-Château “mystery” is coming our way – which number “explanation” is this? 100th? 200th? 300th? – perhaps even more than 1,000 explanations have appeared since the mid-1950s when the “mystery” first originated by Noël Corbu (only following the death of Marie Dénarnaud in 1953, not before).

The famous never-forgotten crypt of the church of St Mary Magdalene was excavated between the late 1950s and early 1960s by the semi-gullible Jacques Cholet and nothing was found. We have known all about this long before the current True Believers had even heard of the “mystery” of Rennes-le-Château.

The True Believers are responsible for caricaturing the tiny village of Rennes-le-Château. During the 1980s I heard it was dangerous for outsiders to visit the tiny village for fear of having their car tyres slashed. The locals were fed up with it all. They had enough of it.

There's a big change now. The True Believers publish books with numerous “mysteries” explained to us every year, with re-enactments of the death of Abbé Gélis, Film Festivals, Musical Performances and of course the “Blue Apples” event every January 17. There are also the Conferences – let's not forget the conferences, that refer to the “treasures” (plural) of Abbé Bérenger Saunière. They even had a “sceptical professor in the house” at one time. The obsession is infinite and never-ending.

The one thing they should all know – like all conspiracy theorists – is that it is the sceptics that should be convinced. This, however, seems more than impossible because everyone knows the script. By the way, it is always helpful to make the discovery FIRST, before making the announcement of a discovery.

The charlatanism which the village of Rennes-le-Château was first poisoned by – as begun by Noël Corbu during the mid-1950s – made internationally famous by Pierre Plantard, Philippe de Chérisey and Gérard de Sède during the 1960s – has now turned into a never ending and boring soap-opera starring those True Believers who now try to pervert historical records for their own profit to keep a tourist industry alive. When the True Believers are not perverting the historical records, they are perverting the works of Pierre Plantard, Philippe de Chérisey and Gérard de Sède.

The True Believers need to convince their critics. But the critics have long since had advance warning of who the True Believers really are – their bad reputation precedes them by some distance.