ABSTRACT
The night of March 10, 1975 was a black one for the peasants of the Larzac. At 3:0., a powerful bomb exploded in the house of Auguste Guiraud while he and his family, including seven children, and their shepherd slept. For the peasants it was a miracle that the vault supporting the roof held so that, although the building was destroyed, no one was hurt. Jeanne Jonquet—who, with her brother Elie, was asleep in their house a hundred yards from the Guirauds’ when the explosion occurred—describes that night as follows:
It is difficult to talk about the bombing. We were awakened at about three in the morning. I thought it was thunder. A neighbor came over and told us that something had happened at the Guirauds’. I thought that perhaps something that the shepherd had left in the house had exploded and that it was an accident. I did not think it possible that anyone could bomb the house. Everything was broken. It was a total mess. We had to find help and Elie got out his car to go to L’Hôpital where there was a phone. I was trembling with fear, afraid that another house would go up. I did not want Elie to go alone so I went and a young person from the village came along. As we drove out of the village, three tires blew. Someone had put nails across the road. We continued anyway. When we got to L’Hôpital, Jean-Marie [Burguière] was asleep and did not answer the door. Finally he did come, but their phone was out of order. We left for Millau to get the gendarmes. They were asleep too, and we had to bang on their door for some time. With the dawn, help came.
