This is the quaint retirement home which has been revealed as the house of horrors at the centre of France’s worst-ever rape case.
Few locals knew of the depravity that unfolded in the semi-detached bungalow, which sits down a cul-de-sac in the sleepy town of Mazan, a picturesque commune in the Provence region.
Gisele Pelicot, a mother-of-three who lived in the home with her husband of 50 years, had no idea what was happening either.
The mother-of-three had moved to the Provence village with her husband, former electricity worker Dominique, from Villiers-sur-Marne, near Paris, in 2013.
They rented the property from a local businessman for seven years, before the horrifying reality of what allegedly was happening started to come to light in 2020.
Dominique Pelicot, 71, had repeatedly drugged his wife so she was unconscious and raped her, and also allowed 72 other men – strangers he met on the internet – to abuse her as well, a court in Avignon has heard.
When police searched the house, they found some 20,000 videos and images of the men abusing Gisele, with Pelicot often directing and taking part in the rapes in the couple’s bedroom.
The Pelicots rented the property from a local businessman for seven years, before the horrifying reality of what was happening started to come to light in 2020
The mother-of-three had moved to the Provence village with her husband, former electricity worker Dominique, from Villiers-sur-Marne, near Paris, in 2013
Gisele Pelicot, 72, leaves court this afternoon
Gisele Pelicot speaks to the press alongside her lawyer on September 5, outside the courtroom in Avignon, France
Dominique Pelicot is accused of recruiting men online to assault his wife repeatedly over a decade until his arrest in 2020
The files allowed police to trace 50 of them, who are now on trial, but a further 22 in the files were unidentifiable and will never be brought to justice as the case has now been closed.
The men got in contact with Pelicot on the shady chat forum coco.gr, but are all from the area surrounding the town, according to prosecutors.
As their four-month trial got underway this week in Avignon this week, locals in Mazan spoke to MailOnline about their shock at the revelations, which have rocked the sleepy town.
The Pelicots’ elderly neighbour was visibly upset as she emerged from her house. ‘I am distraught about what happened here. But what can I do? What do you think I could have done?’
The pensioner, who did not give her name, lived in a pretty home adjoined to Monseuir Pelicot’s den of horrors.
On one side of the semi is her neat garden with a well-kept home and a welcoming gate.
On the other is the home where the Pelicots lived – it is fenced and not open to the outside road, with a concealed alley around the back with a knocked-down metal fence.
Gisele moved out of the home following her husband’s arrest, and it is now rented out.
‘At the time no one knew this was happening,’ the neighbour said. ‘Only now do we know about what was really going on.’
Neighbours have told of noticing the gate on their driveway being left open, while prosecutors have described alleged perpetrators parking down the residential road.
The nearest car park to the home is attached to a school, and the house, while tucked away in the Provence countryside, is a short walk from the centre of the small town.
Gisele Pelicot, 72 was unknowingly given a mix of sleeping pills and tranquillisers by her husband Dominique Pelicot, 71, to knock her unconscious, so he could invite men he met online to come to his home in Mazan, near Avignon, to rape her
Caroline Darian, the daughter of Gisele Pelicot, is seen arriving in court this week
A road leading to the Pelicots’ former house in Mazan is pictured
The village of Mazan is pictured on September 5, 2024
Going around the village, very few admit to knowing Monsieur Pelicot – despite him regularly making the short journey down the lane from his home to play boules with fellow residents in the middle of the town
Mayor of the village Mayor Louis Bonnet spoke to MailOnline about the horrific case
Today, the Mayor of Mazan and fellow residents told how they had no idea of the horrors which were taking place in their idyllic community.
Mayor Louis Bonnet said that he often came across Monsieur Pelicot as he played boules in the square in front of his town hall office.
‘We in the village knew nothing about what Pelicot was doing and we did not suspect anything,’ Bonnet said.
‘Today everyone is talking about what happened because the newspapers have come and there is the television news.
‘But in reality for the people of Mazan, the couple were not very well known because they were new to the village, they had only lived in the village for a few years.
‘And the people who took part in the rapes, we don’t know who they are, they are not from the village, but from neighbouring communities, some of them a long way away.
‘Pelicot played boules in the village, but it is not a game that leads people to talk a lot.’
Going around the village, very few admit to knowing Monsieur Pelicot – despite him regularly making the short journey down the lane from his home to play boules with fellow residents in the middle of the town.
Bonnet became mayor in 2020 – the same year that the disturbing allegations involving his otherwise idyllic town began to emerge.
‘We found out about all of this four years ago. We talked about it at the time and each time there was a development in the police investigation we would talk about it, the identification of the rapists, who the rapists are.
‘But it is not a subject that people really want to talk about. It is serious, but at the same time, no one has died. No child has been killed. It was the rape of a woman.
‘It is not a good advertisement for the village, for Mazan.
‘Madame Pelicot was not well known in the village. I knew her to say hello if I passed her in the street. But before 2020 she was not well known.
‘Now everyone knows who she is because her face has been in the newspaper. But they were not well-known people in our community.
‘I just hope for her that she was drugged and that she did not realise what was happening to her.
Mazan locals told MailOnline they were shocked by the horrifying details of the case but not necessarily surprised
Celion, a teenager who was working at a local moped shop and whose family have lived in Mazan for generations, said: ‘I hope he gets the prison sentence he deserves’
A local couple sat at a popular restaurant also shared their disgust about what had come to pass in their town.
Marie and her partner Enzo said they were both ‘shocked’ by what had unfolded on Chemin du Bigourd.
‘What happened to that poor woman is absolutely shocking,’ said 34-year-old Marie. ‘Everyone in the village is completely bowled over by what happened. It’s completely weird. It’s shocking, really shocking.
‘It’s disgusting. And there were families living there in that little place where they lived, parents with young children.’
She questioned how it could have taken so long to put a stop to the prolific rapes, which saw dozens of men stream into the town to attack Gisele Pelicot.
‘Somebody must have known what was going on,’ Marie said.
Her friend Carla, who works in the bar and restaurant, said that she was shocked by the horrifying details of the case, but not surprised that it happened.
‘I never met Monsieur Pelicot, but in France there are many things like this. Maybe not the same but rape and abuse, a lot of things like this.
‘This is everywhere in France because of men’s attitudes towards women. You never hear the woman’s side of the story.
‘I imagine this whole affair has had a terrible effect on the daughter, her father has ruined her life and the children of the rape suspects because they will be on TV.’
She added: ‘The Pelicot case is scary. Because there were a lot of people who did this to her. Anyone around here could have been her rapist,’ she said, gesturing around at the bar where she worked.
‘They could have been anyone. People that I sat next to in the bar. This is a shocking thing to have happen in the village where I live and where I work.’
Celion, a teenager who was working at a local moped shop and whose family have lived in Mazan for generations, said: ‘I really don’t know what I think about what happened to that poor woman.
‘I hope he gets the prison sentence he deserves. I hope he owns up to what he has done. I hope he dies [in prison].’
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