From short walks to chateau stays on Europe's "Code" trail

PARIS — Last summer, 20,000 more people visited St. Sulpice Church than the summer before. Although the church has an artistic prize — Eugene Delacroix's "St. Michael Vanquishing the Devil" — no one seemed interested in seeing it when I visited. Instead, tourists were gathered by a marble obelisk on the transept's northern aisle, where a sign said: "Contrary to fanciful allegations in a recent bestselling novel, this is not the vestige of an ancient pagan temple."

With 57 million copies of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" in print, it seemed abundantly clear that the people visiting St. Sulpice on the Left Bank were literary pilgrims on the book's trail. They were following in the footsteps of the monk Silas, who goes to the church seeking the key to a secret about Christianity that simply doesn't exist, according to St. Sulpice.

Never mind. Fans are coming in ever-increasing numbers to "Da Vinci Code" settings in France, England and Scotland, inspired by the book's gripping plot, exotic cast of characters and shocking reappraisal of church history. With the movie opening Friday in the U.S., the

stream of "The Da Vinci Code" pilgrims to Europe is expected to reach flood levels this summer. So, even though literary pilgrims used to mean peanuts to the travel industry, tour operators large and small have begun to take note of "The Da Vinci Code" phenomenon. A rundown:

Paris walking tour : Ellen McBreen, founder of Paris Muse, a walking-tour company that specializes in personalized guided visits to museums in the French capital, was one of the first to recognize the trend. "We'd been giving tours in the Louvre but were pretty clueless about the book," she said. "Then people started asking, 'Do Leonardo da Vinci paintings have secret codes in them?'

In February 2004, Paris Muse launched the tour "Cracking 'The Da Vinci Code' at the Louvre," followed by another that tracks the book's adventures through the heart of Paris. www.parismuse.com/ See-it-all package : Steve Born, marketing vice president for Colorado-based Globus tours, read "The Da Vinci Code" in the fall of 2004 on a plane headed to Switzerland. He and colleagues started talking about the book and its European settings, most of them well-established attractions already included in Globus itineraries, such as the Louvre, plus London's Westminster Abbey.

Last summer, the company launched two related tours: "Breaking the Code," a nine-day package to Paris, London and Edinburgh, and a 15-day "The Secret of Da Vinci" trip that adds Rome and Milan, Italy, and Geneva to the itinerary. The two departures of each tour, offered again in August and September, are already sold out, although Globus is trying to get space for additional travelers. www.globusjourneys.com

Information

Seeing the "Code" sights: The government tourist offices of France, England and Scotland all offer "Da Vinci Code" touring information on their Web sites: www.franceguide.com, www.visitbritain.com, www.visitscotland.com.

Putting on the Ritz : Airline tour companies have jumped on board too. Air France Holidays, for instance, now has a four-night "Mysteries of Da Vinci" package.

At the Ritz Hotel, where the book's hero stays while in Paris, a "Ritz and Da Vinci" special includes a night in a deluxe double, breakfast for two and an illustrated version of Brown's novel (for about $800, and the "Da Vinci Code" cocktail at the hotel's Hemingway Bar is extra).

Chateau stay : "The Da Vinci Code" travel phenomenon landed in the lap of Olivia Decker, a San Francisco real estate agent who owns Chateau Villette, about 20 miles northwest of Paris, where the book's Sir Leigh Teabing hides out. A friend of the author rented the 185-acre estate in 2001 and invited Brown, although Decker didn't know the chateau was going to figure in the novel until she got a message of thanks from Brown's wife, Blythe, a year later.

The movie company filmed there last June and July, and now Decker offers "Da Vinci Code" packages of her own, including five nights at the chateau and various guided tours in Paris. www.frenchvacation.com/davincicodetour.htm

Bucking the trend

A handful of "Da Vinci Code" sites, including Paris' St. Sulpice, have not entirely welcomed the phenomenon. At London's Westminster Abbey, where the book is considered theologically unsound, tour guides have been issued information sheets correcting factual errors, and the movie crew wasn't allowed to film on-site. So director Ron Howard and company shot at Lincoln Cathedral.

The Louvre allowed the film company to shoot on-site, an unusual event at the great temple of art. Curators have stopped discussing "The Da Vinci Code" in public, and a certain ambivalence prevails about the role the book continues to play in attracting visitors to the museum.

"But they realize that if it gets people in, it's a good thing," said Christopher Forbes, chairman of the American Friends of the Louvre.

Kristin Jackson of the Seattle Times travel staff contributed to this report