Ben Squires
Retirement Life

French baker to sell business to homeless man for $1.50

A French baker has decided to sell his business to the homeless man who saved his life, only asking for a single Euro for the Parisian boulangerie he built.

But the baker Michel Flamant, 62, has a good reason to offer his business at such a bargain. Just last year Mr Flamant was working when disaster almost struck.

When one of the pastry ovens started leaking carbon monoxide Mr Flamant was in trouble, dazed and staggering around the bakery.

Jerome Aucant, the 37-year-old homeless man who regularly stopped by the bakery, was walking past and quickly noticed something was amiss. When he saw Mr Flamant staggering around he immediately contacted emergency services.

"If Jerome wasn’t around that day I would have been a goner," Mr Flamant told said.

Mr Flamant spent the next 12 days in hospital, before returning to health.

Mr Flamant offered Mr Aucant a job at the bakery, and Mr Aucant has impressed the bakery owner so much with his application he taught him the baking business.

Now, with retirement just around the corner, Mr Flamant has offered Mr Aucant his business for just one euro ($1.50).

"What's more important, money or life? I don't care about money. I'm not rich but I don't care. I want to be free, I want to take it easy now. And also, if this makes him happy..." Mr Flamant said.

And Mr Aucant is very grateful for the offer, "I have to be 100 percent on the job/ Michel has given me a real gift, and now... I want to be worthy of it."

To see the pair at work, scroll through the gallery above. 

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Tags:
lifestyle, retirement life, French, Homeless man, Bakery