Scooter François Hollande used to visit his lover to be auctioned

The scooter used by former French President François Hollande to visit his lover (now wife) is to be auctioned at a starting price of €10,000.

The scooter, which belonged to the Elysée Palace at the time, was used by Mr Hollande to visit his lover Julie Gayet, the actress, on New Year’s Day 2014, when he was still officially with Valérie Trierweiler.

The president was snapped by paparazzi leaving Ms Gayet’s house aboard the scooter, and a political rival once described him as looking like a “pizza delivery man”. 

The story led to the president’s break up from Ms Trierweiler, and Mr Hollande and Ms Gayet married in June 2022.

The vehicle - listed on the auctioneers’ website as “the scooter of the scandal” - will now be sold at auction on May 26 at the Chateau d'Artigny (Indre-et-Loire), by the auction house Rouillac, at its 36th ‘Vente Garden Party’.

The auction house has itself highlighted the scooter’s Julie Gayet connection, and set the starting price at €10,000.

It is a grey Piaggio MP3 from 2009, with three wheels, and measures 125cm3. It has 34,000km on the clock. The black helmet worn by the president, however, is not included in the sale.

The Elysée sold the scooter in 2015, and it has had several owners since then, including its most recent owners, Patrick and Manola Sionneau, who bought it to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary (50 years).

President Hollande even mentioned the couple in his 2022 book Bouleversements, writing: “To Patrick and Manola, who were lucky enough to hop on my scooter to better share their happiness.”

Auctioneers Philippe and Aymeric Rouillac, who have posed on the scooter themselves ahead of the auction, have described the vehicle as “legendary”.

"François Hollande's scooter entered the category of legendary vehicles in January 2014,” they write on the Maison Rouillac website. “It tells the story of a man like any other, and of a nation torn between its desire for power and the realisation of its decline.”