Doomsday report: Apocalypse now in Bugarach
PARIS - France 24
France 24 photo
Eight centuries after Pope Innocent III launched a crusade to rout the Cathar heresy out of Languedoc, the rocky outpost of Bugarach is once again under siege.
On Wednesday, police closed all roads leading up to the village, located some 20 km southwest of Carcassonne, at the foot of the Pyrenees.
It seems heresy has returned to Bugarach, nicknamed "Doomsday destination" ever since online scaremongers drew on an ancient Mayan prophecy to claim that the little village's 200 or so inhabitants would be the only survivors of an impending cataclysm.
Of course the Mayans famously failed to foresee their own demise, at
the hands of Spanish conquistadors. But their claim that the world would
come to an end on December 21 still has many believers - and the people
of Bugarach are determined to keep these "hippies" and "new agers" at
bay.
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