Son et Lumière - Béziers
3 - 1851 - The French coup d'état
A total of 32 departments were put under a state of alert from 8 December and the rebellious areas were controlled in a few days. Opponents were arrested and some were forced to flee. Victor Hugo fled to Brussels, then Jersey, and finally settled with his family on the Channel Island of Guernsey at Hauteville House, where he would live in exile until 1870 when Louis-Napoleon fled after his defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. By the end of the rebellion, 26,000 people were arrested, 9,530 were sent to Algeria and 250 to the prison of Cayenne.
On the 3rd of December 1851 the French Army fired upon the Republican Demonstrators in Béziers, who, encouraged by the Mayor of Béziers, Casimir Peret, were against the coup d'État by Napoleon III.
The suppression of this movement resulted in many people being condemned to death and others deported to French Guiana.
Casimir Péret, who had been sent to the French Penal Colony in Cayenne, perished at sea during an escape attempt from that isle”
There is a Memorial to him in the Place de la Revolution, alongside the Cathedral
| Région: | Languedoc-Roussillon |
| Département: | Hérault |
| Commune: | Béziers |
| Photographer: | Malcolm Reynard - personal website |
The Film of the Spirit of Resistance
