By Elliott West
Introduction
Love can often work in strange ways and this story involves Marcel Amphoux and Sandrine Devillard, 25 years his junior. Marcel, a toothless hermit who lived a frugal lifestyle in the Alpine village of Puy-Saint-Pierre in the French Alps and lived day-to-day in a ramshackle house without running water or heating, was a very wealthy man. The owner of five huts if he had turned them into chalets, would have left him sitting on a goldmine, still refused to abandon his rags and refused to sell up. This is where Sandrine comes into the equation. An estate agent by profession, Devillard visited Marcel with an offer to buy his land. The offer was of course refused but subsequently a romance ensued between this odd couple that would lead to marriage. This was despite the estate agent continuing to run her businesses in Paris and the wave of protest at the ceremony, calling Devillard a “golddigger”.
Shrouded in Mystery
Sandrine was pictured in numerous photographs at the time, kissing and embracing her husband and on the surface seemed to adapt to a lifestyle where her husband lived like a bear in prehistoric surroundings. She even released a music video proclaiming her love in song for her new husband despite only making fleeting visits to their marital home. However a year after they tied the knot, Marcel mysteriously died in a car crash. The driver and passenger, friends of Sandrine survived the crash. The driver was later acquitted of manslaughter.
At Marcel’s funeral, the Alpine village turned up in droves and the parish priest was highly scathing of how Amphoux was treated, describing him as being treated like a balance sheet, not a person. His wife was dressed in black and when the coffin was lowered to the ground, she tried to throw herself into the grave. Erratic behaviour that had followed Sandrine’s announcement that all the inhabitants of Marcel’s cabins would be evicted and the cabins were now hers.
The Will
In 2013, the hermit had handwritten his will on the back of an envelope, leaving his shepherd’s huts to the local tenants with the rest of Marcel’s property going to a female cousin. Sandrine was left with nothing. His wife contested the will claiming it was not his handwriting and that he had been the victim of “abuse of trust”. However, the public prosecutor ruled that her claims had been quashed. He believed that it was his handwriting, concluding that “the will is by his hand” and adding For there to be abuse of weakness, one must first, prove weakness. There is no evidence to prove this.”
