On June 6, 1972, 28 year-old French novelist Huguette Gaulin Bergeron, killed herself publicly by self-immolation in a major street of the Old Port of Montreal, Place Jacques-Cartier, while screaming “Vous avez détruit la beauté du monde!” which means loosely translated from French “You have killed the beauty of the world!”.[1]
Luc Plamondon, a famous French-Canadian lyricist, was inspired to write a hymn in Huguette Gaulin Bergeron’s honor. The hymn, entitled Hymne A La Beauté Du Monde, has since been sung by numerous famous French-Canadian artists such as Diane Dufresne, Isabelle Boulay, Garou, and Éric Lapointe.
Lecture En Velocipede, January 1983 by Huguette Gaulin