quickly appeared in local markets. A few concerts were organised, such as that by Graeme Allwright in 1973. Allwright later wrote a song entitled Larzac 1975. Even José Bové referred to those rallies with some pride as "the French Woodstock" but he also recognised that the effect on public relations was decidedly mixed. Paris marches More ingenious tactics were soon used. On 25 October 1974, a flock of 60 sheep were transported to Paris and set to grazing on the Champ de Mars, right under the Eiffel Tower. To inquiring gendarmes, the shepherds explained that it was publicity for Roquefort cheese. Earlier, a protest march on Paris had been triggered by the signature of the decree of expropriation in the public interest, on 26 December 1972. The march began on the following 7 January, with stops at Rodez, Saint-Flour, Clermont-Ferrand, Nevers and Orléans. At each stop, marchers were welcomed and lodged by local committees; meetings, rallies, and press conferences were organised. Police and local authorities were much less welcoming. The marchers were harassed at every stop-over. Finally, at Orléans, the procession was blocked by the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS, French riot police) and their 26 tractors impounded. Bernard Lambert, leader of the Mouvement des Paysans Travailleurs (Working Peasant Movement), promptly arranged for the loan of 26 tractors belonging to farmers in the Orléans area, the CRS were outflanked and the march proceeded to Paris. A second Paris march began on 2 December 1978. 18 Larzac farmers walked 710 km in 25 stages. The CRS blocked the centre of Paris but 40,000 supporters rallied on the outskirts, making the largest demonstration of the year. The final Paris action began on 27 November 1980, at the height of the presidential campaigns of François Mitterrand and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Mitterrand, notwithstanding his treatment at the hands of militants at Rajal del Guorp in 1974, had opposed the base extension. Giscard was in favour of it. The action consisted of an encampment, in bitterly cold weather, on the Champ de Mars complete with farm animals, bales of straw, a radio station and a media information bureau. The demonstrators were forcibly removed after a few days but the point had been made. Civil disobedience As early as 1972, the communard, philosopher and theorist of non-violence Lanza del Vasto had taken an interest in the plight of the Larzac shepherds and farmers. Del Vasto's commune,