Scooter that whizzed François Hollande to lover’s apartment could be yours For €10,000.

Politico, Claudia Chiappa

The scooter that whisked French ex-President François Hollande to a tryst with his then-lover (and now wife) Julie Gayet in a high-profile sex scandal will be auctioned off next month.

The gray Piaggio three-wheeler landed on the front page of Closer magazine 10 years ago, when the paper exposed the former French president’s affair with the actress.

A picture splashed on the cover pictured Hollande, who was then in a relationship with Valérie Trierweiler, wearing a helmet and seated on the back of the now legendary vehicle.

The French press relished the salacious detail of a security agent delivering an early-morning bag of croissants to the lovers. Although it was later claimed the bag contained documents rather than pastries, the croissants have become a comic motif of French politics, and even seem to be played up by Hollande himself.

The revelations rocked the reputation of the former French president, who split from Trierweiler shortly after. He and Gayet tied the knot in 2022.

Ten years later, the scandalous scooter still inspires fascination. The vehicle, which has changed owner several times since 2015, will now go up for auction on May 26 at a château on the Loire, the Rouillac auction house said.

“The Élysée scooter used by President François Hollande to reach actress Julie Gayet incognito, gallantly, on New Year’s Day 2014,” reads the announcement by the Rouillac auction house.

French media reported the starting price for the scooter — without the helmet — will be €10,000.

“In January 2014, François Hollande’s scooter entered the category of legendary vehicles, as it tells the story, to French women and men, of a man like any other, and of a nation torn between its desire for power and the realization of its decline,” the Rouillac auctioneers said in a press release.