The glamorous ‘gold digger’, a gap-toothed farmer and a fight for his millions after he was killed when his car plunged off a ravine
'Hermit of the Alps' Marcel Amphoux's marriage to Sandrine Devillard, 25 years his junior, was not all as it seemed
DRESSED in a floppy hat, with his wiry grey hair poking out of the side, Marcel Amphoux gave a wide grin to the camera, showing his missing teeth.
In his neatly tied claret cravat, with his attractive younger bride on his arm, the affectionately nicknamed “Hermit of the Alps” had never looked so smart or so proud.
But to Marcel’s friends in the small French village of Puy-Saint-Pierre, the 67-year-old’s marriage to this glamorous blonde, 25 years his junior, would be his undoing.
They were convinced that property agent Sandrine Devillard was a calculating gold-digger, who connived to marry the old peasant farmer for his valuable plot of land in the Alps.
And so they thronged to the wedding ceremony in order to hiss and boo.
The local mayor, who was officiating, said: “I had to bang my fist on the table to shut them up. There was almost a brawl.”
His bid to silence locals in the village near the French-Italian border did not work for long.
In fact, soon it seemed the whole of France was grumbling about the possible motives of 42-year-old Sandrine.
Seven months after the 2011 wedding, in a bid to prove she was genuine, she even recorded a cringeworthy music video, L’appel Du Soleil (The Call Of The Sun) as a love song to her husband.
The video — with its echoes of Julie Andrews’ The Hills Are Alive Sound of Music routine — is supposed to show the glamorous Parisienne’s transformation from stiletto-heeled urbanite to rural homemaker.
She is pictured rejoicing in her new life among the snow-capped mountains and shepherd’s huts, wearing a sparkling white robe.
Marcel also appears — but only from the back, in a hood, until the clip’s last moments when they kiss.
The mountain man who was said to “live like a bear” in a hut without electricity or running water, died in a mysterious car accident months after the shoot.
But only this week, more than four years after his death, has the world found out what will happen to his valuable estate.
The strange story began five years ago when Sandrine travelled to the village in her capacity as a real estate agent.
Her mission was to convince the old man to sell his five shepherd’s huts.
The expansion of neighbouring ski resort Serre Chevalier meant that these ramshackle huts — or rather the six acres they occupied — could be worth millions of pounds.
But she failed to convince Marcel to sell despite courting him with lavish trips to restaurants and the seaside.
However, it seemed that the eccentric bachelor, who got around on a bicycle fitted with a flashing police light and claimed he talked to aliens, was captivated by her attentions.
Then came the news that knocked the villagers for six — the unexpected marriage.
Sandrine later revealed how their relationship grew from helping Marcel with his properties.
She explained: “He has three houses with occupants who pay no rent. I gave him a hand and he asked me to marry him.”
But villagers smelled a rat. They were outraged, fearing this kind, good-natured man who they described as “solitary but affable” was being duped.
One group of supporters even placed a notice in the local newspaper insisting it was not a wedding but that he had been seized “by a gang of frauds.”
At the civil ceremony one resident, who wished to be known only as Jacques, said: “People were booing and jeering.
“They all knew Marcel well, and considered that Sandrine was solely after his property and money.
“As a couple they could not have looked more ridiculous. His wealth was all she was interested in and everybody knew it.”
Even mayor Jean-Marius Barneoud, who conducted the ceremony, was so suspicious of Sandrine’s motives he reportedly asked police to investigate her, something Sandrine said “insulted and humiliated” the newlyweds.
After the marriage, she appeared on a French chat show and said: “People thought I was married to him because my husband owns properties in Serre Chevalier. This is not the case at all.”
Earlier she had insisted: “We are in love. Why don’t people leave us in peace? We want to live together. Full stop.”
RELATED STORIES
Yet she could not actually bring herself to leave Paris to move in with her husband in his hut with its broken windows and junk-strewn yard.
She once rather callously said: “Marcel is a man from the Middle Ages, even prehistoric times. I am a true Parisian. I still live there.
“But I visit my husband as often as I can. To see him and to make him smile.”
Marcel, meanwhile, mostly kept quiet — even in the music video — but in June 2012, three months after the clip was filmed, he spoke briefly to a local paper.
He admitted he had not heard from his wife “for some time”.
He added: “I’m afraid of losing everything.”
That November, tragically, the plot thickened further when the farmer, aged 68, was killed in a road accident.
The driver and another passenger were both friends of Sandrine’s and survived after Marcel’s car plunged down a ravine in heavy mist.
Foul play was ruled out by the gendarmerie.
The driver was later tried for manslaughter in the regional capital, Gap, but acquitted.
The village, which has a population of around 500, turned out to his funeral en masse, but even such a solemn occasion could not escape yet more drama.
His widow, immaculate in black, tried to hurl herself into Marcel’s grave.
Meanwhile the parish priest lashed out at those who had manipulated the old man, and treated him “like a balance sheet, not a person”.
Under French law, it was assumed Marcel’s properties would pass into Sandrine’s manicured hands.
And even before the dust had settled on his grave, she had reportedly told the tenants they would be homeless. To locals, it seemed that Sandrine had won — until a remarkable find the following year.
Scrawled on the back of an envelope was Marcel’s last will and testimony. In it, he made clear his wish for his money to pass to a female cousin and the huts bequeathed to the current tenants.
It stipulated Sandrine should not receive a penny.
It seemed the old man was not as naive as his friends feared.
The document was written “in the weeks before Marcel’s death,” according to lawyer Jean-Michel Colmant, who had verified it is genuine.
But for the past three years, Sandrine has challenged its validity in the courts.
She claimed it was not in Marcel’s handwriting and that she had been the victim of “abuse of trust,” “attempted extortion” and forgery by the new heirs.
But this week news broke that the public prosecutor in Gap has quashed Sandrine’s claims, putting an end to her appeals and to the whole sorry saga.
Prosecutor Raphael Balland declared that handwriting experts had concluded that “the will is by his hand”.
Sandrine will not get a penny.
— Sandrine did not respond to The Sun’s request for a comment last night.
Bizarre video of 'love song'
SANDRINE filmed her own music video to explain her love for Marcel.
It shows her arriving in the Alps as a city slicker, then transforming after he meets her as a hooded, grimy-handed mountain man.