Bugarach

If you like walking, then this is a great place to climb. One side is easy but the other is quite challenging. The views from the top are breath taking.

Well worth a visit but you might want to steer clear on 21/12/12

THERE are now more journalists than inhabitants in Bugarach, Aude, the village predicted to be the only place that will be spared in tomorrow’s apocalypse. 

In all, 254 journalists from all over the world have been accredited to cover the village of 200 inhabitants in the run-up to December 21, the date when internet-fuelled New Age rumours claim the world will end. The date is said to correspond to the end of the current era in the ancient Mayan calendar. 

There are also around 100 gendarmes patrolling the streets and blocking off the mountain top of the Pic de Bugarach which is a focus of interest. Some believers claim there is an alien spacecraft under it. Police potholers have been checking out caves under it which will also be kept under guard. 

Major security measures are in place around a perimeter including three other villages, with road checkpoints, a security headquarters, a team of counsellors and a helicopter evacuation point. Various restrictions have been ordered, including on hunting, hiking, holding “giant apéros”, camping, and parking along roads. 

However, Le Figaro said this excitement is probably “for nothing” because so far hardly anyone else has turned up. 

It said the expected floods of people have not materialised though a handful of “cranks” who have made the trip are thrilled to be receiving so much attention from the film crews on Bugarach’s streets. 

One man, calling himself “Oriana”, told journalists the coming apocalypse would not be “the end of the world”, but would be “a revelation, an internal alchemy that will descend into each of our bodies – like 1,000 orgasms in one go.” 

It remains to be seen if more people arrive on the day itself. 

THE CONNEXION