the Community of the Ark, was nearby on the plateau de l'Escandorgue. He and his followers were skilled at civil disobedience, veterans of hunger strikes against the use of torture during the Algerian war and against nuclear weapons. On 19 March Lanza del Vasto began a 15-day hunger strike at La Cavalerie. He was joined by four local residents: Etienne Paloc, Pierre Bastide, and Pierre & Christiane Burguière. Mme Burguière recalled the impact it had on them. In 2011 she told film-maker Christian Rouaud "it was amazing, in a moral sense. When we came back, I felt I was no longer the same. Yes. Something had happened." Civil disobedience was also partly the motive of the decision to rebuild the ruined stone sheep shelter (bergerie) at La Blaquière. The property belonged to activist Auguste Guiraud and was due for expropriation under the terms of the decree. On 10 June 1973 re-construction began in defiance of the expropriation order and the fact that planning permission had not been granted. Hundreds of supporters came to join the effort, notably the hippie contingent who had to learn the art and craft of masonry very quickly, with somewhat random results. Pierre Bonnefous recalled To say that the influx of hippies shocked the locals is an understatement. Marizette Tarlier recalled that it was the first time she'd seen bare-breasted women in public. The eight months of construction were marked by constant argument and conflict, but the bergerie was finished in February 1974 and stands to this day as a monument to the joint effort. Another tactic that was used with success was to sell very small parcels of land to many sympathisers, with the aim of making the eventual expropriation as difficult as possible for the bureaucracy. Between 1973 and 1981, 6,180 tiny plots were allocated to 3,500 different people and to make the act of expropriation even more difficult, many of these "landowners" lived abroad. In 1976, the fight escalated after soldiers blew up Auguste Guiraud's house in La Blaquière during the night. Miraculously, Guiraud and his seven children were unharmed. On 22 June, a group of 22 activists entered the Larzac military base and destroyed 500 documents containing details of the expropriation. They were arrested and arraigned in Millau the next day. They were sentenced to prison terms varying from three to six months but in fact none actually served more than three