Few legends have been woven from humbler stuff, and this particular encounter between one of the poorest peasant girls in a tiny village of the Pyrenées and "the Lady" led to events that shook not only France but the entire Christian world. Living in the slum, the inhabitants call "the dungeon", nothing about her suggested she might one day become one of the most famous saints in the whole world. Lourdes has become the second Christian pilgrimage place in the world after Rome, the second hotel town in France after Paris.—dbdumonteil