‘Beggar to stars’ writes bestseller, but is still on road

A homeless man who begs on one of Paris’ swishest avenues 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 chi-chi Avenue Montaigne.

The actor Jean-Paul Belmondo once gave him 10 euros ($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.

“In 10 months I will start getting my royalties, although I would prefer to have them now,” he said.

But from the small advance he has been given Roughol has bought a smartphone to keep up with his growing band of followers on Facebook, where his profile picture shows him with a rat on his shoulder.

“People write to me from everywhere and I am stopped every day by people who have read my book,” he said.

Roughol, who has been on the streets for 25 years and regards begging as “a profession”, has to make 80 euros a day to pay for his food and board.

And his new-found celebrity has helped him put bread on the table from the most surprising of sources.

Roughol wrote the book with the help of a former French interior minister Jean-Louis Debre, after offering to look after his bicycle for him while he did some shopping on the nearby Champs Elysee.