Ahhh, so that's it - in relation to the confusion in the last post, there are two letters shown in the BBC documentary, History of a Mystery.
Contrary to what Smith tries to insinuate - the first letter - which I translated from a relatively blurry image from the TV screen - relates to whether there was any record of Sauniere buying a copy of the Poussin painting Shepherds of Arcadia from the Louvre in Paris. Their letter in response said they could not answer that question because they kept no records of these kinds at the time in question. And as the film commentary said - no copies of Poussin were sold until 1901. Out of interest this appears to be wrong, as it seems the Louvre letter concerning this only suggests they had an engraving by Lamotte of the Poussin painting in 1901. I dont even know if they sold a copy of this?
And thanks to Paul Smith's clarification about what he was writing about - he showed a clip from a second and different letter in the same BBC documentary [I didn't see that bit] which was from the Archivists at Saint Sulpice - this letter is definitely illegible! So one cannot know what was written there. But the commentary talked about any evidence of whether Sauniere went to Saint Sulpice and that there was none. Although seriously, why would I believe that when the same commentators appears to have misrepresented the first letter!
I say again, I dont care whether Sauniere went to Paris or not. In fact why wouldn't he have? There is no big deal in whether he did or not. René DESCADEILLAS in MYTHOLOGY OF THE RENNES TREASURE states he made many trips to uncertain destinations.
He also reports that parchments were found.
"In 1886, we see in the deliberations of the council that the priest Saunière is advanced as cash a sum of 518fr. Saunière first wanted the altar to be redone. However, the church of Rennes had a primitive altar consisting of a stone table supported by two pillars, one of which was sculpted. Most witnesses report that by unsealing the stone table, a cavity filled with dry fern was uncovered in the middle of which two or three wooden rolls were found: these contained handwritten parchments. The priest seizes them. He declared that he would decipher, read and translate them if he could. Rumour went around the locality. The mayor asked the parish priest for the translation. Shortly after, he entrusted him with a handwritten translation. The text related, it was said, to the construction or repair of the church and the altar, which is plausible. We do not know what became of this document, just as we do not know where the translation went. The new altar was installed at the beginning of 1887, because Monna, a merchant in Toulouse, who built or supplied it, invoiced it on July 27 of that year for the sum of 700 francs. Around this time, as the old altar had just been removed, there is a fact whose importance immediately appears. Three testimonies certify its veracity. While digging the floor of the church behind the altar, Saunière found a pot, exactly an "oule" filled with gold coins. "But," adds the witness, "it wasn't much”.
DESCADEILLAS also wrote;
"As for the discovery of documents by Saunière, we have always said that it corresponds to a tradition supported by concordant testimonies. But nothing remains of the documents and no one today knows what they were. The fact is too old for those who could have seen them to still be able to testify.... "
"It was in vain that we once tried to question the one who was both his steward and his entrepreneur, Elie Bot. Hosted by Abbé Saunière for many years, Bot inevitably saw a lot of things. A relationships of trust had been established between the abbot and him in such a way that neither the priest's kind of life nor his actions were a mystery to the entrepreneur. Abbé Saunière was perfectly aware of this and for this reason, he had demanded absolute secrecy from Bot about what was happening at the presbytery. Also, without ever making confidences to his steward, he did not hesitate to talk in front of him about his affairs:
"He only tells me what he means," Bot said, "but he tells me anyway" (sic).
Bot kept his word. Bot was there when the old altar of the church was demolished in 1886. He apparently subsequently certified that the documents that had been discovered there remained almost illegible, that in any case, they did not relate to money as was claimed and as some still claim. Bot, for his part, never believed that the parish priest of Rennes had found some "treasure" of which he remained the custodian. He attributed more prosaic resources to the parish priest'.
So parchments were found.
Regarding any possible trip to Paris during any of these unknown destination trips, Corbu reports this in one of his several manuscripts that he wrote. It is alleged to have been written in 1955, but I think this is a little too early. Jarnac has it in his bibliography 1962-1964, although I do know there are several versions of this text [Power and Death]. In the copy I have it says the following;
"1892 – The abbé had gained the esteem of all his parishioners. He was on the best of terms with the Mayor and the councillors, so he made use of this by asking for some money to redo the main altar, which was no longer in keeping with the style of the day, and also to put the roof, which was in a bad state, in order. The Mayor and the local Council agreed and loaned him 2,400 francs. This was a huge amount for that time. The abbé was happy. Thanks to this money, he could do the repairs and alterations, which he thought were advisable. From Couiza, he brought in a mason, named Babou, who began the work and started by demolishing the main altar. The abbé used to go and see the work at 9 o’clock in the morning. Being February, it wasn’t very warm. As he arrived in the church the mason called him over about a cavity he had found in one of the pillars of the main altar. In this cavity there were some wooden rollers sealed with wax. Intrigued by this, the abbé took one, broke open the wax cap and saw a greyish mass, which he drew out. It was a parchment, written in Old French and Latin. The abbé recognised fragments from the Gospel, but mixed in amongst them were other words such as pieces of gold, jewellery, etc. The abbé caught his breath. There was a mystery here. The scattered words danced before his eyes. He recognised some numbers. The abbé pulled himself together because Babou was there looking at him pretending to be indifferent. He told him that they were sacred documents that had been put there by other priests, perhaps at the time of the French Revolution. The abbé told the mason that they weren’t worth anything and that he should go to lunch, during which time he would say mass. Babou didn’t push the matter and went off. As soon as he had gone, the abbé got out all the rollers, broke the wax that was sealing them up and read their contents. He was glad to see then that everything was all muddled up, but nevertheless, he was sure that these parchments would reveal a fantastic secret.
After dinner, Babou started to gossip and, the news spread like wildfire. Soon the whole village knew that rollers containing parchments had been found. The Mayor came to see the priest, who showed them to him without any fuss, but he didn’t understand anything and unfortunately the priest didn’t know anyone who could prove that these documents were worthless, being as they spoke of St. Matthew, St. Luke and St. John. The Mayor did not press him, but the priest was afraid that if Babou carried on, he would make another discovery. Under the pretext of having to go on a journey and so not being able to oversee the works, he stopped everything.....
..... During the night, the priest, aided by Marie, tried to decipher the documents, but so many things escaped him. There were whole phrases in Old French and Latin that he did not understand. The only thing he could decipher at all well were the verses from the Gospel, and the signature of Blanche of Castille with her seal. All the rest formed a puzzle that did not fit together. Marie suggested that he should go and see a Latin expert in Paris, but the journey was expensive. Marie and her family gave the priest all their savings, and with the little that he had, it was enough. In Paris, several Latin experts were pointed out to the priest, who was very much on his guard and only gave a part of the documents to each one".
Lots of discrepancies.
No mention of Shepherds of Arcadia.
But mentions of parchments and Paris.