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One key element, the Priory of Sion which Brown claims as fact. for one example, is a debunked fraud.

thanks for that -- I dropped by the English-language section of the bookstore for lunch and yes, that's on the front page claiming that the Priory of Sion is real.

This is claimed to be something created in 1099 when actually it was created by Pierre Plantard in 1956.

To claim this as a "fact" on its first page is devious at best.

Priory of Sion is an admitted and proven fraud. The documents linking da Vinci et al, key to the whole edifice, are frauds. This was all known when Brown wrote the book; he claims this fraud as fact and builds the structure of his fictional plot around it.

In his preface, Dan Brown states: 'The secret society of the Priory of Sion was founded in 1099, after the First Crusade. In 1975, parchments referred to as 'Dossiers Secrets' were discovered at the Bibliothèque Nationale, which mention the names of certain members of the Priory, including Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo and Leonardo Da Vinci'. These events, which Dan Brown presents as the truth, are simply untrue. The Priory of Sion was founded in June 1956 by Pierre Plantard, who at that time was working as a draughtsman at the Chanovin works in Annemasse.
As for the 'Dossiers Secrets', they were forged and filed with the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris by Pierre Plantard in the 1960s. The French journalist Jean-Luc Chaumeil unmasked Plantard's imposture in the 1980s and published several books on the subject. He also collaborated with BBC2 on a TV program which was broadcast in 1996, and which presented evidence demolishing the whole story.
But it would seem that Dan Brown has not taken any account of this. The novelist has also not hesitated to make his heroine Sophie Neveu the descendant of the families Plantard and Saint-Clair (a name that Pierre Plantard adopted in 1975), who themselves were descended from the Merovingians, and who are presented in the novel as the descendants of the marriage of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene...
…When called before the court to testify, Plantard, under oath, admitted he had made up the whole Priory scheme. The court ordered a search of Plantard’s house, which revealed further documents that proclaimed Plantard to be the true king of France. The judge gave Plantard a stern warning and dismissed him as a harmless crank.
The basis of the Da Vinci Code is a hoax created by Pierre Plantard.

Souce.