Da Vinci Code and The French Connection?

I just finished reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I must say it's a pretty well researched book and the plot is well-conceived too...I find it amazing that people manage to think of such intricate stories and then put it in words too!!

A lot of stuff related to the things in the book has been making the rounds on the net and media lately. Moreover, the guy makes such claims about Jesus Christ and the rise of Christianity using the different characters in the book that one would think that it might have happened...conspiracy theory galore!! So much so, that Opus Dei have a section on their website refuting the claims in the book.

No wonder the book is getting rave reviews the world over...
Overall a very "readable" book but I found the ending a bit too tame and there were a few places where the guy just seems to lose focus...

The plot of the book is almost entirely set in Paris... Well, this book would need to be in France considering the fact that the Louvre that has one of the biggest collections of art and other things from medieval and post-Renaissance Europe and the story starts off there...
I wonder what it is in France that draws most authors. I find quite a few authors who almost invariably turn to France and history in their books at some point or the other:

Frederick Forsyth : "The Day of The Jackal"
Robert Ludlum: "The Bourne Identity" & "The Bourne Supremacy"
Alexandre Dumas: "The Three Musketeers" & "The Man in the Iron Mask"
Victor Hugo: "The HunchBack of Notre-Dame"

and the list goes on...
I guess one needs to visit France to figure out what it is that draws these authors to it!!