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In the spring of 1764 in the remote region of Gévaudan, a young shepherdess is attacked by a beast and owes her salvation only to her oxen who chase the aggressor away. For three years, the attacks follow one another, taking many children and leaving survivors mutilated, who contribute to maintaining the climate of terror. This Beast is elusive, despite countless hunts and the assistance of Louis XV's royal hunters. Who is it really? Why has its memory endured for more than two centuries? We invite you to retrace its bloody "epic" and decipher what its myth reveals about the evolution of rurality in France. Conference presented by Jean-Marc MORICEAU, professor of history at the University of Caen and president of the Association of History of Rural Societies. A specialist in the relationship between man and wolf, he published The Beast of Gévaudan, Myth and Realities (Tallandier, 2021). For more information: https://www.unicaen.fr/homme_et_loup/