hit by a truck who had failed to yield the right-of-way. Corbu who was not in the driving seat and not wearing his seat belt, was killed instantly, the driver suffered only minor injuries. Corbu was interred in a burial vault alongside his wife (who died in 1966) in the cemetery of Rennes-le-Château. The estate has been the property of the local Municipal council since 2000. Noël Corbu's daughter Claire Corbu with her husband Antoine Captier (whose grandfather was the carillonneur of the church of Rennes-le-Château, when Bérenger Saunière was the local priest), first published their book L'Héritage de l’Abbé Saunière in 1985, reproducing a selection of archives relating to Bérenger Saunière, and in May 1989 opened the Saunière Museum in the village of Rennes-le-Château as part of the Association Terre de Rhedae, also part of the local Municipal council. When the Saunière Museum re-opened on 1 March 2009, the story of Bérenger Saunière and the history of Rennes-le-Château was presented in four different languages. The museum was re-opened and re-furbished more recently in 2016 and called Le Musée Domaine de l'Abbé Saunière. While the local Municipal council superficially accepts the legend of the treasure of Rennes-le-Château because it acts as a tourist magnet attracting substantial financial revenue (for example, endorsing DVDs that publicise the legend), the legend is not treated seriously by French archaeology (itself part of the French Ministry of Culture). For example, when the then village mayor gave the go-ahead to excavate the Tour Magdala in 2003 he was subsequently threatened with legal action by the local body of Direction régionale des affaires culturelles (or DRAC) for doing so without gaining prior official permission and therefore breaching the French Code du patrimoine. Published works Le Mort cambrioleur (1943), Imprimerie du Midi, 14 rue de la loge, Perpignan. Facsimile reprint, Paris: Les Éditions de l'Oeil du Sphinx, 2005. . See also Villa Bethania Rennes-le-Château Bérenger Saunière Priory of Sion Notes References Claire Corbu and Antoine Captier, L'Héritage de l’Abbé Saunière (Éditions Bélisane, 1985, ; 1995, ; revised edition, Éditions de l'Oeil du Sphinx, 2012, ). David Rossoni, L'histoire rêvée de Rennes-le-Château: Eclairages sur un récit collectif contemporain (Books on Demand Editions, 2010). External links Bérenger Saunière Museum and Domain. Municipal council of Rennes-le-Château website endorsing the legend of Bérenger Saunière. 1912 births 1968 deaths French hoteliers Priory of Sion hoax Pseudoarchaeologists