Friday, December 11, 2015

The French beggar who wrote a best-selling book...

A homeless man who begs on one of the fanciest avenues in Paris has become an unlikely celebrity after writing a bestselling book about his life on the streets.

The creme de la creme of Parisian society pass daily in front of Jean-Marie Roughol's pitch outside a Chanel boutique on the exclusive Avenue Montaigne.

The actor Jean-Paul Belmondo once gave him €10 ($11), and France's most famous chat show host, Michel Drucker, always tossed him a coin.

But now the beggar is appearing on television himself -- including on Drucker's show -- after selling 40,000 copies of his memoir, "My Life As A Panhandler".

 But despite the success of the book, which the 47-year-old wrote on park benches and in the dosshouse hotels where he sleeps, Roughol is still on the streets and was back working his pavement this week in a Santa Claus hat. Full story...

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