Putting your faith in GPS, it appears, is not as reliable as putting your faith in the Lord.
An increasing number of Catholic pilgrims are learning this lesson first-hand as they show up in the unremarkable French village of Lourde — no “s” — and wait in vain for a miracle that never comes.
NOTHING SPECIAL
Nestling in the Pyrenean border country south of Toulouse, this little hamlet of 94 people has little in common with Lourdes, the world-famous holy site located about 90km to the west. It has no hotels, no shops and certainly no history of Marian apparitions.
So when they arrive in their cars, having misspelled the name of their destination on their navigational system, the new arrivals are understandably confused.
“They are all surprised to see that Lourde[s] is so small; they ask you about the underground caves,” one village councilor told French radio on Wednesday.
“One day, a hearse showed up. The driver stopped in front of the map [of the area]. I advised him to have a look in the 65 [Haute-Pyrenees departement] instead,” Lourde Mayor Robert Amblard told La Depeche newspaper.
POINTING THE WAY
Ever since the mid-19th century, when the unassuming market town of Lourdes became a pilgrimage point for Catholics all over the world, residents of the lesser-known Lourde have been used to having to point outsiders to the right road.
However, since the development of GPS, they say, the strays have become far more numerous.
“For two years now ... more and more people are getting it wrong. We have Spaniards, Dutch, Belgians and of course French people. It’s proof that they can’t use technology,” said Louis, a local man.
IN ALL SERIOUSNESS
Occasionally, it takes the errant pilgrims a while to notice they have taken a wrong turn, the residents say. Some of them, they claim, even confuse the village’s modest statue of the Virgin Mary with the Statue of Our Lady at the Grotto of Massabielle, and lay their wreaths with great seriousness.
Despite the confusion, the villagers are resisting calls for them to modify their name in a bid to help pilgrims save themselves from orthographical recklessness.
“I don’t see why we should change our name,” one local told RTL radio. “There is Bagneres de Luchon and Bagneres de Bigorre and people manage to get by.”
The resident, who was not named by the radio station, added: “Even without an ‘s,’ we are still a nice village.”
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