SHOTLIST 1. Wide of Bugarach sign with mountain peak, Pic de Bugarach, in background 2. Close-up of Bugarach sign 3. Tilt up from sign: (French) "Road closed" to police manning check point 4. Various of police checking cars 5. Wide of centre of Bugarach village 6. Close up of a UFO model hanging from a window, a Santa toy is draped over the top 7. Various of posters depicting UFO's on the door of a local home 8. Wide of child cycling through village 9. SOUNDBITE (French) Jean Michele Pous, Bugarach resident: "For many years Bugarach has been researched and that annoyed people a bit but nothing like this. But now for the last three to four days, with roads being closed, it is affecting the residents of Bugarach, the people here are angry with what's going on, and they have nothing to do with the date of 21st of December and the doomsday rumour." 10. Various of mounted police 11. Various of international journalists at the village 12. Wide of press conference 13. SOUNDBITE (French) �ric Freysselinard, Head of local government: "The security force that we deployed and was shown in the media, in one part stopped new age enthusiasts, but also the curious people to come in the area. But you know with all the media presence here and all the security force in the region, the area is not safe to visit." ++NIGHT SHOTS++ 8. Mid of Bugarach residents jokingly wearing large plastic funnels on their heads 9. SOUNDBITE (French) Eric, Surname not given, local resident: "I really believe that all of this is a big joke, but we do believe in it just a little bit, just enough to make fun of it. " 10. Mid of locals with funnels on heads waving to passing cars STORYLINE Authorities are expecting several hundred people, mainly UFO enthusiasts and curious onlookers, to pour into the French village of Bugarach on Friday, Dec. 21, when some people predict civilisation as we know it will end. The sleepy town nestled in the quiet region of the French Pyrenees mountains is rumoured to be the sole place on earth that will escape the destruction. A giant UFO and an alien crew are said to be waiting under the mountain, ready to burst through and spirit those nearby to safety. French authorities have established several checkpoints outside the village, barring potential doomsday fanatics from accessing the Pic de Bugarach mountain pea. The approach to the peak is being guarded by French gendarmes. "With all the media presence here and all the security force in the region, the area is not safe to visit," said local government head �ric Freysselinard. Local residents also appear to be losing their patience. "For the last three to four days, with roads being closed, it is affecting the residents of Bugarach, the people here are angry with what's going on, and they have nothing to do with the date of 21st of December and the doomsday rumour," Jean Michele Pous, a local resident said. But some who are making the most of the situation, preferring to see the humour in the situation. "We do believe in it just a little bit, just enough to make fun of it," a local resident named Eric said as he and friends donned white plastic funnel hats and waved at passers-by. The Mayan calender marks the end of a 5,126-year-old cycle around Dec. 21, 2012, which brings the return of Bolon Yokte, a Mayan god associated with war and creation, according to the Mayan's stone tablet Monument Six. The description was cited by many people as the evidence for the theory of "the end of the world." The Hollywood disaster blockbuster "2012" then added fuel to the fire, making the saying popular across the world.
MYSTERIOUS PLACES - Recently, the small French village of Bugarach in the Pyrenees is receiving more visitors than ever before. So many people are visiting that there are fears of an invasion. And now there have been rumors that the Bugarach mountain is a place that offers survival – so people are flocking there.
The Bugarach mountain, or Pech de Thauze, can be seen from the village or from any other location in the area. It seems an unlikely place to survive an Apocalypse. It is not very high by world standards: 1,230 metres, whereas for example Mount Ararat, the legendary landing place of Noah’s Ark, is 5,137 metres high. It looks like an ordinary rock. However, the rumors suggest that the mountain contains a door into another world or that it houses an underground space station and extra-terrestrials will soon return. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire? The Bugarach mountain is a dormant volcano. Internal fires cause hot springs that feed a river flowing down to Rennes-les-Bains. The geology is unusual: the top layer of the mountain is part of the Iberian plate, which is older than the layer below. It is relatively easy to climb. There is actually a ‘gate’ in the mountain, but this is simply a hole in a cliff, that offers a nice view and a photo opportunity for tourists. The mountain top is flat, theoretically suitable for an aircraft landing.
Like more places in the Pyrenees, the Bugarach mountain is surrounded by legends and “unnatural” stories. People who have climbed it, report hearing strange sounds and seeing lights, UFO’s and white figures staring at them. Looking at the bigger picture, believers see the mountain as a gateway to the Corbière mountain range and beyond. The story goes that there is a huge lake underneath the mountain, on which space-ships float. Even the forgotten continent of Lemuria is mentioned. Jules Verne visited the place more than once. It is said that his experiences in the region inspired him to write Journey to the Centre of the Earth and other books.
Around the world there are similar stories about mysterious mountains. Could it be that such stories are more ‘normal’ than we can imagine, that our ancient ancestors may have witnessed stargates and spaceships in action all over planet Earth? Unfortunately, we have to live with legends and individual accounts and have no other proof – yet.
Sun rise in Bugarach, a small village in the foothills of the Pyrenees on December 20, 2012 in Bugarach, France.
Will the world end this week? Possibly. Not positive, but pretty sure. The constellation of cosmic and everyday events seems right. “Weekend of fear in Greece as Monday brings salvation . . . or ruin,” reads one headline. Others follow: “Grexit ‘beginning of the end for Eurozone,’” “‘Last days of Pompeii’ as crunch time approaches.”
“Financial historians may look back at the events of next week and wonder how Europe’s financial unravelling was permitted,” writes Lawrence Summers, Bill Clinton’s Secretary of the Treasury and later president of Harvard.
I’ve been watching this for twenty years now and have come to this moment. Things break, money crashes and as economies shrink just an inch poverty and mayhem advances. Wars ensue. All at once that which you always assumed to be true no longer appears to be, and it becomes increasingly apparent that our basic assumptions were false all along.
‘Twas ever thus at the end of the world.
I’ve come to the conclusion long ago that the fire this time would not be external like the last time which brought the destruction of Europe from 1914 to 1946. This time it will be internal; for Europe, for the West, for America.
And it could last a good long time. Because this time, for those with the mystic bent, the end of the world occurs right here at the millennium; the end of the century, the end of the thousand-year arc, the end of the two-thousand year zodiac cycle known as Pisces, which gave the world the Christ and Mohammed, symbolized by two contrarian fish swimming in a circle.
The signs are plentiful today; the fall of the Twin Towers marking the first year of the millennium, the rise of Israel, the widespread, global anti-Semitism. Again. More likely the age will rise this time in Jerusalem as the millennial sun cycle awakened the last time in Bethlehem. That, say Europe’s old gnostic poets and Israel’s bearded prophets is what they do. Possibly that is why turmoil arises today on Temple Mount, the jewel heart at the very end of the long historic journey known to Jews as “the return.”
Signs in heaven, signs following. And perhaps this statement spoken not long ago by Moshe Feiglin, Israeli folk figure, Jewish advocate and former Knesset member is relevant: “The exile is over.” For when the Jews return to Israel, it has long been claimed by said poets and prophets, the millennium awakens.
There are symptoms here as well. Americans have lost faith in the Presidency, in Congress and the Courts corrupted each by populism, money and partisanship. American power today instead begins to advance contention between governors and big city mayors; classic contentions – urban against rural, North v. South, New York v. Texas, the formidable New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, increasingly linking the big cities to Washington direct, likely to find increased contention with the formidable Texas Governor Greg Abbott and his new posse of heartland governors increasingly repudiating Washington’s influence via the Tenth Amendment and other means.
“The Hill” reports that state legislators around the country have introduced more than 200 bills aiming to nullify regulations and laws coming out of Washington, D.C., as they look to rein in the federal government.
Our own Wise Old Man from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, fairly counsels, “I think rural America needs to understand what urban America feels. Urban America needs to understand the culture of rural America.” But he is alone in this. Otherwise, each here to the other declares, “J’accuse. . . !” One of these two, de Blasio or Abbott, may rise to dominance – perhaps conquest is the correct word – in the lifetime of Millennials.
Just one vicious, savage nudge now and everything could fall apart, as it did when Gavrilo Princip killed the Grand Duke. Like when a lone gunman terrorizes a historic African-American church killing nine in prayer in a pure act of political terror. If it suggests anything, it suggests a feral, unsettled and dangerous disquiet which haunts the very roots of our uncommon American condition every day.
Suddenly, the expansive, globalist model of American capital is passe. The world beyond our borders is beyond our reach.
But the fall said to occur next week is because the Greeks are fighting with the Germans and will soon leave or be thrown out of the Eurozone, which threatens to unravel the world like a cat toying with a ball of yarn. Thus the dire predictions; poverty, anarchy, decay and squalor. But what I find more interesting is this perceptive thought from Tim Worstall, a contributor to Forbes who has ideas on economics, finance and public policy. He wrote in Forbes in March:
“As I’ve been saying for some time now the biggest threat to the continuance of the euro is not that Greece might leave, but that it might leave and then thrive. At which point people in Italy will indeed be asking, well, why do we have to suffer all this pain when we could just bring back the lira? And it is Italy that is really suffering most from the euro of those two countries mentioned, Italy and Spain.”
Which is to say that the world may not be dying after all. It may be about to be born again.
Suddenly, the expansive, globalist model of American capital is passe. The world beyond our borders is beyond our reach. “Europe” as Bismarck claimed, is an illusion. Small is beautiful. Secession is acceptable and nullification is rampant.
The “second great political trend of the age: devolution” forecasts the world ahead according to a recent report to the CIA. Scotland, Venice, Catalonia, Texas, Vermont, northern California and even Wisconsin have all shown symptoms.
“Devolution is even happening in China,” writes Parag Khanna in a New York Times article, “The End of the Nation State.” “Cities have been given a long leash to develop innovative economic models, and Beijing depends on their growth. One of the most popular adages among China watchers today is: ‘The hills are high, and the emperor is far away.’”
In Greece it may be said as of Monday, we are seeing the future. And maybe this time it will work.
Il y a quelque jours, un ami m'a appelé pour proposer que la Bête à Poils, Hatchi, et moi l'accompagnions en randonnée. L'ami avait en tête l'idée de grimper jusqu'au sommet du Pech de Bugarach. Bugarach est devenu très connu car quand il y a eu la folie de fin du monde en 2012, la montagne était censée être le seul endroit à y survivre. Enfin, c'est ce que disaient beaucoup de croyances New Age.
Donc, le jour J, mon ami est venu nous chercher le matin et c'est parti pour environs 2h30 de route. Nous sommes arrivés au pied de la montagne vers midi et avons pique niqué sur place. Ensuite, nous avons démarré la grimpette.
Panneau à l'aire de pique nique, cherches les fautes !
Panorama du haut de la montagne
Je ne sais pas trop comment raconter une randonnée. Enfin, j'en ai surtout retenu qu'on a marché, Hatchi m'a beaucoup aidé à marcher plus vite et dans les endroits techniques de la descente, eu chaud et soif, vu des paysages sublimes et qu'on est rentrés épuisés. La Bête à Poils et moi pensons du coup à nous équiper un peu mieux pour partir plus souvent en randonnée avec Hatchi.
Bugarach, a small village on the French side of the Pyrenees, has become a centre of attention because some believe it is the only spot on Earth expected to survive a coming global apocalypse on 21 December
Des soucoupes volantes tout près du Bugarach, c'est le 6 septembre à Rennes-le-Château.
Échappant aux canons de l'approche scientifique classique, la discipline (parascience) qui étudie les OVNIS (Objets Volants Non Identifiés) ou UFO en anglais se nomme l'ufologie. Souvent pollué par des analyses fantaisistes, voire par des supercheries grossières, le désir des organisateurs de la 2e journée de l'Ufologie du Razès, qui se tiendra à Rennes-le-Château, le samedi 6 septembre prochain, sera de montrer qu'il s'agit au contraire d'un sujet sérieux méritant des études sérieuses.
L'illustration de notre sujet en carte postale est une photo de Jean-Louis Socquet Juglard, qui avait été éditée à l'occasion du 21 décembre 2012. Rennes-le-Château, capitale de tous les mystères, rebondit sur ce coup médiatique autour du Bugarach pour poursuivre l'événement.
Un programme fourni
De nombreux auteurs avaient accompagné l'année passée la première édition (Gildas Bourdais n spécialiste français de l'affaire de Roswell). Cette année, de 9 h 30 à 19 h, Yves Lignon (Université de Toulouse le Mirail), Jean-Luc Rivera (directeur de la Gazette Fortéenne), Didier Gomez (directeur d'Ufomania) et les chercheurs Thibault Canuti (auteur d'ouvrages sur le sujet) et James (scientifique) aborderont le sujet sous divers angles. Les grands cas inexpliqués seront évoqués, tout comme le cas de la surveillance particulière des centrales nucléaires ou des exo planètes (la vie dans l'Univers)…
Le nombre de places étant limité, les inscriptions (20 ) s'effectuent auprès de ods@oeildusphinx.com ou auprès de Philippe Marlin au 06 11 72 38 06. Il est possible de prolonger la journée avec les intervenants au jardin de Marie (dîner 25 tout compris), préférer la réservation.
The Copper House Gallery will launch The Time of Dreaming the World Awake, a photographic exhibition, by PhotoIreland Festival Portfolio Award winner Yvette Monahan from 7-10pm, Saturday 5th July 2014. Yvette Monahan was selected by an international jury of 21 professionals as the winner of the Portfolio Award at PhotoIreland Festival 2013. The Time of Dreaming the World Awake will run as part of PhotoIreland Festival 2014.
Based on a small region in Southern France, The Time of Dreaming the World Awake is a portrait of a place, a landscape of possibility. The show is inspired by the mythical Bugarach mountain and it's connection to a Mayan prophecy which indicated that the world as we know it, would end on 21st December 2012. The prophecy claimed that this date would mark the beginning of a new era for humanity, Bugarach being the first bastion of this modern Arcadia.
Drawn to the esoteric legends surrounding Bugarach, over the course of 2012 Yvette Monahan was compelled to capture an allegorical landscape full of portents that exist beyond the sphere of visual reality. In order to access the intangible within the landscape, Monahan photographed people and places intuitively; her camera a method of visual enquiry translating the existential nature of this place. While the Mayan prophecy passed without event, the possibility of an idyll may yet exist in the realm of our imagination.
Yvette Monahan is a Dublin based photographer whose work is inspired by myths and landscape. The Time of Dreaming the World Awake won the Portfolio Award at PhotoIreland Festival 2013. This body of work was also chosen to represent the Belfast Photo Festival at the 2014 Circulations Festival in Paris. The dummy book of The Time of Dreaming the World Awake was nominated in January 2014 for MACK publishing’s First Book Award by Christiane Monarchi of Photomonitor. Yvette completed an MFA at the University of Ulster in 2013 under Paul Seawright and Donovan Wylie. Yvette also works as one half of seanandyvette photography with her husband Sean Breithaupt. They both work independently but come together for commissions.
PhotoIreland is an organisation dedicated to promote critical thinking around photography and a deeper engagement with the visual arts. Now in it's fifth year, PhotoIreland celebrates a festival every July, promoting by way of a proposed theme, works from national and international artists. The theme to this year's festival being: Truths, Facts, Fictions, Lies.
The Time of Dreaming the World Awake, a photographic exhibition, by PhotoIreland Festival Portfolio Award winner Yvette Monahan, runs at The Copper House Gallery from 5th July until the 20th July 2014. Admission is free and all are welcome.
Bugarach transcends typical notions of filmmaking. Boasting a three piece screenwriting and directing team (Ventura Durall, Sergi Cameron, and Salvador Sunyer), Bugarach emerges as an experimental concoction that incorporates art-house imagery to tell a slightly fictionalized account of a real event in a small village in the foothills of the mountains of France. Laden with traces of documentary style realism, Bugarach further manages to rise in merit with its simple story of how one village of 200 people is turned upside-down by the insurgence of thousands who falsely believe Bugarach to be the only place of survival on December 21, 2012. With this story, Bugarachis ripe with complex critiques on the media and the frail integrity of modern day journalists.
Most of Bugarach’s charm is owed to its director of photographers, Iván Castiñieras and Cyprien Clément-Delamas, who create an air of haunting spectacle through their use of overly saturated, brooding colors in every scene. The color black appears in ominous opaque hues while other colors, like green, are dredged in darker shades. Though this dreary cinematography is ever present throughout most of Bugarach, it doesn’t take away from the film’s visual zeal as lighter colors pop with almost candy like brightness when shown. The majestic nature of the mountain that is the film’s focus is captured through long shots that exhibit its stature among the surrounding land mass and the clouds’ penchant for rolling over its peak.
Burarachis ultimately a template to outline the absurdities of journalistic integrity and the susceptibility of mankind. Poignant moments of dialogue and action skillfully exhibit how the outsiders who have intruded in the villager’s neighborhood affects them both superficially and internally. Some characters use the event to their advantage, while others try in vain to convince arrogant reporters that all they want is to be left alone. Bugarachpartly focuses its attentions on the absurdities of the mass hysteria surrounding the 2012 “apocalypse,” but it mostly is a magnifying glass with its sights set on human existentialism and man’s fear of death.
Mediapocalypse à Bugarach : chronique d’une fin du monde avortéePublié le : 20/12/2013 à 18h35
Le 21 décembre 2012, le village de Bugarach dans l’Aude doit être épargné par la fin du monde prévue par les Mayas. La veille du jour fatidique, le village se prépare à l’arrivée massive de journalistes venus des quatre coins du globe couvrir ce non-évènement. Mais chacun sait que rien ne va se passer. Entre une conférence de presse absurde, un maire dépassé par la situation, un troupeau de journalistes sans sujet, une poignée d’ésotériques en quête d’audimat et un écologiste venu faire du compost avec les excréments des journalistes, Mediapocalypse se moque d’un système médiatique qui se mord la queue. Mêlé d’images tournées sur place et d’images des médias présents, ce film propose de jeter un regard critique sur cette imposture subie par les médias.
SHOTLIST AP Television Bugarach France, 21 December 2012 1. Mid of men dressed in "alien" costumes, made of tin foil, speaking to people in village 2. Close-up of "alien antennas" being worn by man 3. Pan across from media to "aliens" 4. Close-up of men in costume 5. Mid of men in costumes holding bottles of beer 6. SOUNDBITE: (French) Man in "alien" costume, name not given: "We are here to amuse you, the media needs to film something. You have been here for four days now, so we thought we would give you a reason to be here." 7. Mid of people sat on steps of building with bags 8. Wide of people talking in street 9. Tracking shot of villager taking plastic funnel off his head 10. SOUNDBITE: (French) Claude Fosse, visitor from Perpignan: "This is a media circus, it's all being done for the village to be known, the bet has been won, because Bugarach is now famous on national, European and global levels. Bugarach is now known world wide.Yes" (laughs) 11. Tracking shot of police officer pulling over vehicle at village checkpoint 12. Wide of entrance to Bugarach, village sign 13. Mid of police helicopter flying over Pic de Bugarach mountain STORYLINE: "Aliens" turned up on Friday (21DEC 2012) in a French village, rumoured to be the sole place on earth to avoid destruction during Friday's feared apocalypse. The two men, dressed in tin foil and wearing fake antennas, entertained villagers and a pack of media that had assembled in Bugarach for the end of a 5,125-year Mayan calendar - which some thought may spell the end of time. A giant UFO and aliens are said to be waiting under the Pic de Bugarach mountain, ready to burst through and spirit those nearby to safety. The heavy presence of media disrupted the everyday lives of some locals, but for others, it represented a chance to joke about the supposedly pending doomsday and the legends that surround the mountain peak rising steeply above the village. "We are here to amuse you, the media needs to film something. You have been here for four days now, so we thought we would give you a reason to be here," one of the men dressed in an "alien" costume told the assembled journalists. Bugarach, in the French Pyrenees, had been braced for the arrival of hundreds of New Age enthusiasts. But there was bad news for those seeking salvation: French gendarmes, some on horseback, blocked outsiders from reaching the peak and its village of some 200 people. "This is a media circus, it's all being done for the village to be known, the bet has been won, because Bugarach is now famous on national, european and global levels," said Claude Fosse, a visitor from Perpignan. As the sun rose from time zone to time zone across the world on Friday, there was still no sign of the world's end - but that did not stop those some people gathering at some of the globe's purported survival hot spots. Many of the esoterically inclined expected a new age of consciousness - others wanted a party.
Very close to my holiday home, just a quick drive through the Gorges de Galamus away, the highest peak of the Corbières offers unforgettable hiking experiences even to those who have only little experience with hiking the mountain: the Pech (or Pic) de Bugarach. The most difficult ascent start at the D 45 from D45 von Caudiès-de-Fenouillèdes to Bugarach, easier walks to the 1,230 m high peak start off the D14 linking Bugarach to the Gorges de Galamus. The best time to start your walk are mornings.
When walking at a relaxed pace, consider three hours for walking up, and two for returning. As you are crossing pastures, please be cautious when opening and closing the electric fences – in southern France, you will always find rubber handles to easily open the gates.
The path is well marked; steady boots are better to walk on the gravel path than sneakers or sport shoes. Take plenty of water along… and don’t forget a little „goûter„, a little picknick, and celebrate your peak climb with typical specialities from the region! Soak up the sun, enjoy the view of the snow-capped Pyrenees peaks, and take a deep breath – the fresh and clean mountain air is flavoured iwth thyme, rosemary, and other herbs.
This past weekend, Yvette Monahan published a book of photographs about a rural area in south-central France between the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenees mountains. At the region’s center is a mountain called Bugarach. Monahan spent a year taking pictures of the mountain and its surroundings, which have a rich mythical history. I was enchanted by the photos in her book, ‘‘The Time of Dreaming the World Awake,’’ when I saw them recently, so I reached out to her and got her to tell me what sparked her interest in this French spot:
I was visiting a friend in the area in 2010 when I first heard the story about the mountain Bugarach. A few months later, back in Ireland, I found myself retelling the stories repeatedly. Bugarach and the surrounding area are shrouded in mystery and myth, and seem to have drawn people toward it for centuries.
The mountain itself is a geological anomaly, since its top layers are millions of years older than its bottom ones, making it an ‘‘upside down mountain.’’ I’ve heard that due to this strange geology, its magnetism is inverted.
The mystery of Rennes-le-Château, a village on one side of the mountain, is quite a tourist attraction and receives thousands of visitors every year. The Treasure of the Templars, the Holy Grail some call it, is said to be housed in one of the Cathar castles that dominate the landscape, usually perched on spectacular rocky outcrops. Regarded as heretics by the Catholic Church, the Cathars were wiped out by the Albigensian Crusade led by Pope Innocent III. When a general asked how to distinguish between Cathar and Catholic, the response was ‘‘kill them all, God will know.’’
Nostradamus and Jules Verne were local to the area. Verne alluded to the mountain in much of his literature, Captain Bugarach was the hero in ‘‘Clovis Dardentor.’’ Bugarach is said to be where Verne found both the inspiration and the entrance for ‘‘Journey to the Center of the Earth.” His books are said to be written in code to protect the mystery of Rennes-le-Château. Verne burned all of his papers at the end of his life to protect these secrets. There were also many tales of President François Mitterrand’s being helicoptered onto the peak, of mysterious digs conducted by the Nazis and later the Mossad, the Israeli secret services. Finally, Bugarach is also thought to be the inspiration behind ‘‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’’ as Spielberg spent time around the mountain.
It is a tiny area in rural France, which adds to the mystery of why it is so rich in such significant histories, stories and myths.
Jacques Le Bris's insight:
An exhibition of Monahan’s photographs will be on view at The Copper House Gallery in Dublin through July 20.
Trailer for Bugarach.No one took much notice of Bugarach until the world was coming to an end. In early 2012, the citizens of this tiny village in the south of France are going to church, swimming in lakes and voting in their country’s upcoming presidential election. But amidst the growing paranoia of the approaching Mayan doomsday prophecy, a news story appears that alleges when the apocalypse hits, Bugarach will be the only place on the planet to survive. The story gathers global attention, attracting the interests of international media outlets, mystic prophets and all those looking for a ticket to the rapture. The anxieties of the inhabitants are less focused on apocalyptic prophecies and more on the massive influx of outsiders looking for a way to squeeze themselves into their quiet rural community. With the fate of the world on the line, Bugarach is forced into the spotlight as Earth’s surprising and reluctant hero.
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