The prison break that stunned the world

In 1986, Nadine Vaujour, supposedly a bored French housewife, took flying lessons under a fake name with one goal in mind: to steal a helicopter, fly over Paris and pluck her husband, the notorious bank robber Michel Vaujour, off the roof of the high-security Santé Prison.

​In this episode, we dive deep into the extraordinary true crime story of Michel and Nadine Vaujour. From Michel’s legendary reputation as France's "King of Escapes" to Nadine’s audacious, movie-worthy helicopter rescue, we explore:

​Michel Vaujour's multiple prison escapes 
​The painstaking plan and undercover flying lessons behind the 1986 getaway
​The dramatic rooftop extraction that shocked the world
​The aftermath, the manhunt, and the surprising twists in their story.

​If you love true crime, high-stakes heists, wild prison escapes, and insane real-life love stories, you won't want to miss this one.

​Listen now and remember to hit Follow/Subscribe for more incredible true crime stories. Thank you. 🙏

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:09

What would you do for love? Would you write romantic poetry? Would you move to the other side of the world? Or would you take helicopter piloting lessons just to pluck your soulmate off the roof of a maximum security prison? Because for Nadine Vaujour, that question wasn't a hypothetical. In May of 1986, Paris's notorious Santé prison was considered completely inescapable. It held Michel Vaujour, a charismatic criminal, serving a lengthy sentence and who had already broken out of jail three times before. The guard thought they had him knocked down tight and didn't count on was the sheer determination of his devoted wife. This is a story of romance, rotorblades, and a prison break. So cinematic it sounds like a Hollywood fever dream, but it was entirely real. Today we are chopping into the unbelievable story of Michel and Nadine Vaujour, a couple who took ride or die to a whole new level. I'm Steve.

Speaker 3 1:18

He's Neil, and this is Le Honourable Mention Honourable Mentions.

Speaker 1 1:33

Hello, listener. How do we find you today? As Meatloaf once said, I will do anything for love, but I won't slick that. Well, we have no such qualms here because we love you, listener. I hope you know that. Yes, yes, yes, I hear you cry. That's all very well, but we only tolerate you at best. Where's the heart throb? The real love interest, the nation's podcasting sweetheart. Well let's find out, shall we? As we all say, all together now. Hello, Neil.

Speaker 4 2:08

Well hello there.

Speaker 1 2:10

Hello, Neil. How are you?

Speaker 4 2:13

Hi, I'm very well, thank you very much indeed. I'm being very suave and sophisticated.

Speaker 1 2:19

Suave and sophisticated like an Englishman. Because you're English, aren't you, Neil?

Speaker 4 2:23

Yes, I am English, yes. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 2:26

We gave the world football and cricket, Shakespeare, the Beatles, we invented gravity and the origin of species, and of course McVities biscuits. Famously, everybody loves an Englishman, Neil. Except those countries were colonized and still hold a grudge just because we took all their valuables and swapped them for smallpox and influenza, or the ones we sent all our prisoners to, or the ones who weren't embraced by the Empire, but we took all their stuff anyway. Or Argentina or Spain, why they want to quibble over some windblown rotts right for the hours. But apart from them, everybody loves an Englishman, except the Scottish and the Welsh and the Irish. But apart from them And the French. And the French, of course, that goes without saying the bloody French, which is a shame, Neil, because that's where we're going for today's episode of Honourable Mentions.

Speaker 3 3:19

En Francais, Si'vous plait. Look at that listener.

Speaker 1 3:26

Now then, Neil, as if simply being born French wasn't bad enough. Michel Vaujour, strange name for a bloke, but there we go, experienced a tumultuous and traumatic childhood after being abandoned by his parents at just the age of four. Was he a musician? Musician. No, you're thinking of Jean Michel Jar.

Speaker 4 3:49

Well, right, okay. Same thing, then it sounds the same. Or Bono. Didn't she sing Joe Lataxi? Who's that one?

Speaker 1 3:56

Oh Vanessa Paradis. Yeah, that does sound very much like Michel Vaujour.

Speaker 4 4:02

It does, yeah. Very close.

Speaker 1 4:03

Yeah, but this is Michel Vaujour. He experienced a tumultuous childhood I was describing for you rudely interrupted. He was separated from his parents at just the age of four. He was sent to live with his aunt, where he was very happy, thank you very much. Until she died of cancer just four years later.

Speaker 4 4:23

That's not very nice, is it?

Speaker 1 4:24

No. Born in nineteen fifty-one in Saint Quintin Le Petit, North Eastern France, and now eight-year-old Michel was returned to his parents, and in particular his alcoholic father who terrified him.

Speaker 4 4:38

What did terrify him?

Speaker 1 4:39

The boy was never shown any affection, and instead, no matter what he did, he was subjected to daily violence.

Speaker 4 4:46

Well, put him in front of films.

Speaker 1 4:48

Not subjected to things like Grand Theft Auto. I'm talking about being given a right beating by the father that terrified him.

Speaker 4 4:57

Oh, okay, fair enough.

Speaker 1 4:59

This sense of abandonment would shape Michel's future. By nineteen he had a partner called Zabette and between them they had a child. But Michel needed something else. He resented the society he was now part of because the way he saw it, they had forced him into the clutches of his father. He longed for revenge for thrills and easy money, so he began stealing cars.

Speaker 4 5:29

I will have my rewengi.

Speaker 1 5:31

Until he got caught and was handed down a thirty month prison sentence.

Speaker 4 5:36

Thirty months.

Speaker 1 5:37

Inside the violent prison world, Michel's resentment grew into hatred. Then Zabette left him and took their daughter to live with another man, and Michel snapped.

Speaker 4 5:54

Did he?

Speaker 1 5:55

Psychologically, not physically.

Speaker 4 5:57

Oh, see, because that's strange if we would do that.

Speaker 1 6:01

Isn't it?

Speaker 4 6:02

Although we have in previous podcasts to even have someone whose jaw fell off, didn't we? So there's that one.

Speaker 1 6:07

May oui? Now, Neil. 1973. After being arrested for driving without a license and not adding sufficient truffle oil to his tartiflet.

Speaker 2 6:21

Right.

Speaker 1 6:22

He was sent to Mâcon prison. Where he made his escape by slipping past the delivery truck near the prison gates and simply ran out into the streets. Following year, Neil. Now let's see if you can do this maths. We just spoke about 1973, so now we're in the following year.

Speaker 4 6:43

Yeah. Which will be 1974. I don't. Did you use all your fingers? No, I've only got I've got two fingers, which I shan't be showing anybody else, but you'll be getting. That sounds wrong.

Speaker 1 6:56

The following year he was recaptured following a burglary and given his previous escape placed in solitary confinement in a disciplinary unit. While exercising alone in a small yard, Michel noticed that the wire mesh overhead was held together by rusted fencing wires. Over several days he quietly unravelled the wire, then opened a gap in the mesh, scaled the high outer wall, and jumped to freedom. Or sig gli sangrot huye dans un benoir grace.

Speaker 4 7:35

That sounds like something like a slippery wet turd in a bathtub.

Speaker 1 7:39

As slippery as a wet turd in a greased bathtub. That's right, Neil. That's your command of languages.

Speaker 4 7:47

Yeah, I know. Yeah, yeah. I'm I'm very good at languages.

Speaker 1 7:50

Now, Neil.

Speaker 4 7:51

Bonjour.

Speaker 1 7:52

Hello, Neil!

Speaker 4 7:53

Hola.

Speaker 1 7:54

Knowing what we know about these French chappies, what would you say would be the key ingredient in the most Frenchist prison escape of all time?

Speaker 4 8:05

Key ingredient of a special French escape.

Speaker 1 8:09

Ingredient being a bit of a clue word.

Speaker 4 8:12

Oh right, so like a baguette or something.

Speaker 1 8:15

Oh on the right lines. What's the Frenchist thing?

Speaker 4 8:19

Croissant.

Speaker 1 8:20

No, no, no, no, God bless you. No. Cheese. The old fromage.

Speaker 4 8:25

Cheese. I thought someone's taking the picture. I started to smile.

Speaker 1 8:28

You did, nearly. In 1975, after his involvement in a bank heist, Michel was sent to the high security Châlons prison. It may have been high security, but it didn't mean Michel wasn't able to exploit one of the many weaknesses in the French character.

Speaker 4 8:50

Was it made from cheese?

Speaker 1 8:51

No, the whole prison was not made of cheese, although that's a very good guess. No, the main weakness in the French character, as we all know, is the old déjeuner, the luncheon. And what do the French eat for every déjeuner, please, Neil?

Speaker 4 9:06

Jambon, which is, of course, ham.

Speaker 1 9:09

Right, I'm gonna stop you there, Neil. I'm gonna stop you there. There is a clue in that the main ingredient of the escape was fromage. And so what I am saying, what is the key ingredient that Michel exploited to make his escape, the answer would be a cheese sandwich. Oh close, close. Let's see how close you were. What have you guessed, listener? Michel secretly hoarded the red wax wrappers of Babybell cheese. Oh la la! Until he had enough to make a little bowl and bump into a chief guard in the hallway, where he deftly pressed a master key into the wax to make a perfect impression.

Speaker 4 9:56

The red stuff, is that actually wax or is it edible? Because I just eat it.

Speaker 1 9:59

Ugh. Oh, it's wax.

Speaker 4 10:02

Is it?

Speaker 1 10:03

Yeah.

Speaker 4 10:04

Oh. I'll take the paper off and just whack the rest of it in.

Speaker 1 10:07

Do you tell the doctor this when you see him about your constipation?

Speaker 4 10:11

No, no. No, no, just that's what I do anyway.

Speaker 1 10:15

Using a small file smuggled into his cell, Michel made an exact working replica of the chief guard's key to unlock his heavy cell door and slip out. Fromage to freedom.

Speaker 4 10:31

But where did he get the metal from to make the key?

Speaker 1 10:34

Oh, I don't like it. I wasn't there.

Speaker 4 10:36

Oh, you went there? Oh. You went in prison in France then?

Speaker 1 10:41

No, not in France. No. No, most other countries, but not France, I've avoided that one.

Speaker 4 10:47

Oh, you've you've done well to avoid that one, didn't you?

Speaker 1 10:49

Yeah. We're now in 1979. And the Châlons Courthouse.

Speaker 4 10:56

Five years on from 1974.

Speaker 1 10:58

Oh, how about that, listener? We're in the Châlons Courthouse, where Michel was appearing before a magistrate to be questioned on car theft, driving without a license, attempted burglary and his previous prison escapes. While in his courthouse holding cell, Michel spent hours meticulously crafting a replica of a semi automatic pistol from a bar of soap, including the barrel trigger and trigger card and everything. He then requested dark shoe polish under the clever ruse of wanting to clean his shoes, but instead he used it to coat the calf soap to give it a realistic metallic sheen. When he was brought into the courtroom, Michel waited for the perfect moment before he whipped it out.

Speaker 4 11:49

Can't just do that in the courtroom, that's disgusting.

Speaker 1 11:52

The soap meal. He brandished it exactly like a loaded firearm and pointed the soap gun directly at the presiding judge and courtroom officials, threatening to open fire if anyone moved.

Speaker 4 12:05

Now you see that's that's jeopard, isn't it? It's fifty-fifty. Do you say good then? Or do you say, okay, I'm not going to move?

Speaker 1 12:11

That's what I thought. I thought I don't know why you bothered all that trouble making it into the shape of a gun, because this is France. If it just threatened people with a bar of soap, it'd cause mass panic, wouldn't it?

Speaker 4 12:21

Well, yeah, I suppose.

Speaker 1 12:23

Using the judge and courtroom staff as temporary hostages to keep the guards at bay, Michel backed out of the room, chewed his path to the exit, and vanished into the streets before anyone clocked they'd been had. Hmm.

Speaker 4 12:39

That soap would be no good now, though, would it, 'cause he'd have shoe polish all over it.

Speaker 1 12:42

Yeah, I wouldn't have the shoe polish. Didn't get all over his hands. I don't know. Mystery. This stunt cemented Vaujour's reputation in France as a creative escape artiste.

Speaker 4 12:55

He's a very good model maker by the sounds of it.

Speaker 1 12:57

He does. He sounds like if he'd have gone straight, he'd have made a lot of money on its seal somewhere. But the accolade of the King of Escapes was yet to come. Now, those paying attention will know that the year of Michel's soapy shenanigans in the Sharlon Courthouse was 1979. Well done, Neil.

Speaker 4 13:17

Thank you.

Speaker 1 13:18

Well done. And that was a big year for Michel in more ways than one, because his main motivation for escape was that he was now a married man again. And had a child again. This time a daughter called Betty Betty. Betty had married Nadine Rigard. While incarcerated, and Betty was born while Nadine was serving a sentence for her role in the robbery of an armoured vehicle near Shua. That's how you say it. By the lower reaches of the Loire River in central France.

Speaker 4 13:59

If he was incarcerated and she was incarcerated, do you know like when m uh a man and a woman, uh mummy and daddy, want to make a baby, do they not have to be in the same sort of area?

Speaker 1 14:13

He married Nadine or a gone while they were incarcerated, and Betty was born while Nadine was serving a sentence for her role in the robbery of an armoured vehicle.

Speaker 3 14:27

Right.

Speaker 1 14:27

So using a bit of common sense then, or using a bit of common sense, I would say that they did the they they did the dirty deed.

Speaker 2 14:38

Right.

Speaker 1 14:39

Before they were both incarcerated. For her to be pregnant long enough to be giving birth in prison.

Speaker 4 14:48

Do you think they did it?

Speaker 1 14:49

I think so. Well, they're French, aren't they? Yeah, I know. I bet they wouldn't even wear pajamas.

Speaker 4 14:55

Yeah, but it took his socks off and everything.

Speaker 1 14:57

Anyway, you're happy, can we continue?

Speaker 4 14:59

Yes, please, I'm happy now. Thank you very much for those please, thank you.

Speaker 1 15:04

Before you ask, we do not know what part Nadine played in the attack on the armoured vehicle. The Americans can't say vehicle. They have to put it into three syllables. Vehicle. Vehicle. But her sentence was relatively light, so it's probable she was a lookout or a scout and not involved in the robbery itself. In fact, Neil, before you ask again, we don't know much about Nadine Vaujour at all. She was born on the twenty fifth of may nineteen fifty four, but there are no records to document where or who her parents were for reasons we will go into later.

Speaker 4 15:44

Okay. I shall look forward to those reasons.

Speaker 1 15:47

Stop banging on about it, please. The details of how, where and when Nadine first met Michel are guess what?

Speaker 4 15:56

We don't know.

Speaker 1 15:57

You don't know, right on Neil.

Speaker 4 15:59

You're welcome.

Speaker 1 16:00

It was within the criminal underworld, and we know that all of the following is historical fact.

Speaker 4 16:07

Ooh.

Speaker 1 16:08

So just your beret and butter you baguettes because we're going in.

Speaker 4 16:13

Okay, done.

Speaker 1 16:14

You ready?

Speaker 4 16:16

Hmm.

Speaker 1 16:17

As the nineteen eighties arrived, Michel's offences escalated significantly. He became a Korea bank robber, orchestrating and taking part in multiple high states armed robberies across the country and introducing firearms opens you to a whole new world of crimes and charges because in France firing at officers of the law automatically triggers charges of attempted murder. And so during at least one bank job, that charge fell on Michel too. Ultimately, his one-man rage against the machine worked up an accumulation of charges and spent convictions for arm robbery, illegal firearm possession, taking hostages, firing on police officers, attempted murder, multiple prison escapes, car theft, driving without the license, knowing all the dance moves to Agadoo, and wearing acid wash denim in a built-up area.

Speaker 4 17:21

That's the worst thing. That's that's to be the the biggest punishment ever wearing acid wash bloody denim. But it'd be elasticated bottoms on them as well.

Speaker 1 17:29

Luminous towling socks. By the time he was caught again, Michel's wrap sheets led to him being handed down a whopping twenty-eight year sentence. That's not a lot for all that. To be served in Paris's super duper high security La Santé prison, which was considered escape proof. And that's where he was in 1986.

Speaker 4 17:58

So that probably isn't fully escape proof.

Speaker 1 18:00

While he was in the clink, the slammer, the big house, or la zonzon, as the French would have it. The infants their actual name La Zonzon.

Speaker 4 18:12

Oh, it sounds like you're saying the infants. It's a bit a bit worried, eh?

Speaker 1 18:15

Yeah, that's because they're you know, we've got these manly names and they come up with Zonzon. But then again they invented ballet, as we invented headbutting people. Nadine enrolled in helicopter flying lessons as was her want to do. Thanks to us, France is a free country, so who's gonna stop her?

Speaker 4 18:34

Yeah, exactly, yeah.

Speaker 1 18:35

It was 1983, so three years before 1986. I've got that in there, so you didn't have to do the maths this time, Neil.

Speaker 4 18:43

Thanks for that. I was a struggle with that one.

Speaker 1 18:44

Yeah. And she registered under her maiden name of Nadine Rigon, and quietly set about building up flight hours as a board housewife with too much time and money on her hands.

Speaker 4 18:57

Yeah, that's that's a big problem.

Speaker 1 18:59

Requirements were a lot lighter than they are now. Nadine simply had to pass a satisfactory medical, prove her age, and then she was free to get her hands on a chopper and take it right up. Who? While being watched very closely, of course.

Speaker 4 19:14

By who? Dirty pigs.

Speaker 1 19:17

In early 1986. So we jumped forward three years ago now here.

Speaker 4 19:22

So work that one out. Thank you though, Stephen.

Speaker 1 19:24

In early 1986, Nadine adopted the cunning brand new alias of Lena Rigon. So she's basically changed her first name. That'll throw him off, wouldn't it?

Speaker 4 19:36

Throw him off, wouldn't it, yeah.

Speaker 1 19:38

Yeah. And began hiring helicopters twice a month from a company based outside Paris. Every time she paid in cash at roughly two thousand two hundred francs an hour, which as you all know, Neil, is what in today's Euro, please?

Speaker 4 19:55

three hundred and fifty thousand.

Speaker 1 19:57

Three hundred and fifty thousand? No, no, you need to be small.

Speaker 4 20:01

Three hundred fifty Euros.

Speaker 1 20:02

You're very close what didn't you just say?

Speaker 4 20:04

Three hundred and fifty Euros.

Speaker 1 20:25

Three hundred and fifty euros. How about that, listener? Did you get there before, Neil? Honestly, well done, Neil. You win Todays Star Prize, you won a speedboat. All this was funded by Michel's criminal operations. Taking people's appendages out when they wanted to decision. I don't know what his criminal operations were.

Speaker 4 20:45

Exactly.

Speaker 1 20:46

The owner of this helicopter hire company later admitted with a gallic shug and a giton dangling from the corner of his mouth that he should probably have taken more notice of a woman who showed up like clockwork had always paid cash. Hey, what you gonna do? Now Neil, if you can translate that into the original French for our listener, the first L there, Anjo listener. So please, Neil, go.

Speaker 4 21:15

I should have took more notice of the lid coming in and get our buses and pens of cash. I should have took more notice of the broad coming in here and spending all that money.

Speaker 1 21:28

Well, how about that, listener? You learn a lot, don't you fluent French coming at you this time of the day. We're now transported to the morning of the twenty sixth of may nineteen eighty six, if you cast your mind back. That was a bright and sunny day in Paris. At around ten thirty AM a white Eurocopter gazelle flew straight over central Paris, a rare sight indeed that drew the intention of All that saw it. Well so you did. The helicopter ignored the frantic radio demands to identify itself. Instead, it dropped lower out of the sky to hover over the roof of one of France's toughest prisons, La Santé. For the past year or so inside the prison, Michel had been quietly scouting the building with a fellow inmate by the name of Pierre Hernandez, who was waiting trial on armed robbery charges.

Speaker 4 22:30

Did they make the rope out of baby bell wax?

Speaker 1 22:33

No, I better you wish they'd thought of that. They probably took you off baby bells. Well, there's probably nothing town. So that would just go mushy, wouldn't it?

Speaker 4 22:42

Yeah, yeah. But then I suppose you've got the silver wrappers from the the from the thingy cow, aren't you? Let's just take the wrappers off, perhaps.

Speaker 3 22:49

Or we could make a suit of armour.

Speaker 4 22:52

Well perhaps they took the wrappers off and just gave them the cheese triangle.

Speaker 1 22:56

Yeah, probably just gave them the naked cheese triangle.

Speaker 4 23:00

Yeah, yeah, makes sense. I'd done have done that.

Speaker 1 23:03

How'd you get a cheese triangle from a cow? You need butter, milk, and cheese and an equilateral chain saw. Half man, half biscuit come at you there, listener. Their plan first involved the helicopter landing on the roof, but their hearts sank when they got up there and realized there wasn't room for it to set down and take off again. So their plans were tweaked.

Speaker 4 23:26

These are silly people, aren't they? They should realize that first straight off, wouldn't they?

Speaker 1 23:30

Neil, Neil, Neil. Neil.

Speaker 4 23:32

Yeah.

Speaker 1 23:33

These are French. You need to allow some leeway.

Speaker 4 23:36

Okay, sorry.

Speaker 1 23:37

And so on that blue sky morning, with a deft touch, Nadine navigated security wires and get the helicopter at just the right height over one of the prison cell blocks. Inside the building, things were in chaos. Launching a sudden attack, Michel and Pierre were wielding wooden guns they'd made, threatening to shoot dead anyone that got in their way. It progressed from soap.

Speaker 4 24:05

Yeah, but I mean well, this is just French. Did the guards not think to themselves, hang on a minute, it's a top security prison. Where have they got those guns from? They can't be real. Instead they're going out with a mob handle, going, I've painted it black.

Speaker 1 24:20

Move out to me, move out to me, as I should shoot.

Speaker 4 24:25

Move out the way, move out the way, or I will shoot.

Speaker 1 24:29

Okay, thank you. Yes, well, what you've done there, Neil, is you see, what is the one of the main characters of your Frenchman, as we've seen throughout history? Cheese. Yes. Also surrender.

Speaker 4 24:42

Oh right, yeah. And stinky breath.

Speaker 1 24:45

Yeah, they're not likely to put up much of a fuss, are they? I mean, these are these are French. So again, you see, you don't have an assumed leeway.

Speaker 4 24:53

You can't be that strict. Come out with a toilet roll thing. Get out of the way ourselves we'll wrap this round your face.

Speaker 1 24:59

Oh shall wipe your bottom.

Speaker 4 25:01

I shall wab my bum and screw it at you.

Speaker 1 25:04

Yeah. Michel and Pierre were wielding these wooden guns they made. Like you said earlier, I'm pretty sure if he'd have gone straight he'd have made a fortune on Etsy. Yeah, absolutely. They climbed up to the rooftop. Prisoners cheered and banged on their doors as news flooded in that the two inmates were now up there and running around armed with hand grenades.

Speaker 4 25:28

It was probably aubergines, wasn't it?

Speaker 1 25:30

With the explosives clearly visible, not a single guard fired a shot as the two men, Michel and Pierre, ran over the red tiled rooftop towards the unidentified helicopter. But Neil, you may have identified something here, because in reality, they weren't dangerous explosives at all. They were ripe nectarines from the prison cafeteria painted green to look like military grenades.

Speaker 4 26:01

Wow.

Speaker 1 26:02

Not all the guards were folded. And some were merely allowing them time to whip up a classic clafu tea. Michel, in his long-sleeved red shirt, choked and grabbed the skin to the bottom of the white gazelle and began to haul himself up. Those tricky tricksters had no intention of creating a thick, eggy, crepe-like batter with a nectarine filling meal. They were trying to escape.

Speaker 4 26:49

I know why. Why? He wanted that nectarine pancake.

Speaker 1 26:54

Do you think that's what it was?

Speaker 4 26:56

Yeah.

Speaker 1 26:57

He actually thought to himself, yeah, I can create a thick, eggy, creep like batter for the next.

Speaker 4 27:04

I'd give myself up for a caprice hole.

Speaker 1 27:07

Make a top of tea.

Speaker 4 27:09

Hmm.

Speaker 1 27:10

I think he was trying to buy his friend more time. By standing there and saying, Alright, alright, it's a fair couple of those same friends.

Speaker 4 27:19

Okay, you got me, you pigs.

Speaker 1 27:24

So he was trying to do that. And buying his colleague more time to get away.

Speaker 4 27:29

With his explosive nectarines.

Speaker 1 27:32

His explosive nectarines, yes. The heavy thumb of the gazelle's rotor blade slicing through the air, bounced off the high stone walls of the inescape hall of Santé and echoed loudly through the prison yard, where some fellow inmates had gathered to watch the gleaming white machine fly away with notorious prison escapee Michel Vaujour.

Speaker 2 27:59

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 28:00

So your comment earlier about they're probably in the way that he escaped with all the nectarines, proves not to be so, how cheering him on.

Speaker 4 28:07

Well, that's very generous of them, then, isn't it?

Speaker 1 28:10

He may have left the pompe de terre behind.

Speaker 4 28:14

Yes. Apple to be earth.

Speaker 1 28:16

Which are, of course. Potatoes. Potatoes. Potatoes. The spectacular escape made headlines around the world within hours. French police Sorry.

Speaker 4 28:30

I don't remember it.

Speaker 1 28:31

And you might not have been paying attention. French police openly called the pair a real life bonnie and Clyde and admitted the couple had probably had years to prepare a hideout, which made tracking them down far harder than usual.

Speaker 4 28:45

They probably had some explosive nectarines or something even worse around the building surrounding it. They perhaps perhaps took a puddle.

Speaker 1 28:53

Nadine flew a short distance to a football field in southern Paris, where they landed, jumped into a waiting car and vanished into the Parisian traffic. Michel was now being referred to as the king of escapes, as the married couple simply disappeared.

Speaker 4 29:17

Did he have a house and then on his door? Did it say instead of where of the dog? Did he say, Beware, I can fashion explosives out of fruit.

Speaker 1 29:25

Yes, he did. So you do know the story.

Speaker 4 29:28

Yeah, so then their police were like, ooh, ooh, guys, let's not go here. This guy can do things with bit of fruit.

Speaker 1 29:35

Yeah, the self-loading banana and all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 4 29:38

Oh, it was Emily did that, wasn't he? Oh, okay. Oh nice. Anyway, I digress.

Speaker 1 29:45

Oh, what are you going for?

Speaker 4 29:47

Well, I think considering the subject of today's podcast, I'm gonna go for purple.

Speaker 1 29:53

And that ties into Beethrup. Which ties into Vegetables. Which ties into Explosive Nectarines. I see where you've gone. Right, yeah, that's quite logical.

Speaker 4 30:06

Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 30:07

Yeah. You wouldn't go for red, white, and blue, the trickleur.

Speaker 4 30:11

That's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 30:12

No, that's that's a good colour to go for. Purple yesterday.

Speaker 4 30:16

Hmm.

Speaker 1 30:17

Then, Neil, on September the twenty-eighth, nineteen eighty-six. Michel did what Michel couldn't help doing, and with two accomplices, he robbed a branch of the Credit Lyonnaise Bank.

Speaker 4 30:31

Yeah. He's straight back into it, isn't he?

Speaker 1 30:33

So this is what, four months? After she'd risked it all to get him out. There he was again, robbing a bank. But this one ended in a fierce gun battle with the police, during which Michel Vaujour was shot in the head.

Speaker 4 30:52

Was he?

Speaker 1 30:53

Remarkably, the severe brain injuries didn't kill him, but he fell into a coma and was temporarily paralyzed, ultimately having to relearn how to move and speak. The day after his shooting, police tracked Nadine down to a safe house in South West France and arrested her. The romantic getaway was over.

Speaker 4 31:22

So they found the place.

Speaker 1 31:24

Nadine was charged over her role in the escape and served jail time of her own, though she was released relatively early, after which she wrote a memoir in 1991 and then withdrew from public life to the extent that much of her records are impossible to find today. Hence at the beginning we spoke about how tricky it was to find out where she was born and all that sort of stuff. Once he'd recovered enough to stand trial, Michel has returned to her maximum security prison for twenty-seven years, seventeen of which were in complete isolation with nothing but a bed, a toilet, a concrete cell at any daylight, and his significant injuries.

Speaker 4 32:15

Is he allowed to go for an hour's exercise or was he stuck in that room twenty-four-seven?

Speaker 1 32:20

That's a good question, Bill.

Speaker 4 32:22

Thank you.

Speaker 1 32:23

Remarkably, that wasn't the end of his escape attempts. He tried once more with the help of a law student named Jamila Hamidi, who was 18 years his junior and later became his second wife after he and Nadine separated due to their continuous time apart. In 1989, Jamila conducted a television interview with Nadine. This led to interviewing Michel in 1991. She became his pen pal and lover. Oh lala! And eventually Jim Miller tried to break him out of prison.

Speaker 4 33:04

Another one tried to break him out of prison.

Speaker 1 33:06

What method do you think they'd use?

Speaker 4 33:09

Cheese.

Speaker 1 33:11

Oh no, not this time.

Speaker 4 33:13

TV interviews.

Speaker 1 33:15

No, not this time.

Speaker 4 33:16

Um well hang on a minute, because he's very good at fashioning things out of fruit and wood and white stuff like. Did he make a different face?

Speaker 1 33:25

From the eighteen.

Speaker 4 33:26

Yeah.

Speaker 1 33:27

Someone else altogether from to look like a face from the eighteen. No. That's a good guess, no. No. The idea was that while he was out in his confined space for his exercise, Jamila hijacked her helicopter. Because she couldn't fly one. Because she wasn't that handy. So they'd gone for the open.

Speaker 4 33:51

They'd gone for a helicopter breeding.

Speaker 1 33:56

What do you reckon she used? What do you reckon she used to hijack it?

Speaker 4 33:59

I would say a carrot. A dangerous carrot. If you don't take me to this band, I shall pull the stalk out of this carrot and it would explode.

Speaker 1 34:11

But yeah, so she hijacked a a helicopter. She hijacked a helicopter, and it failed. The plan failed.

Speaker 4 34:19

Well, there's no room for it to get in.

Speaker 1 34:21

And she received a seven-year prison sentence. And as you've rightly observed, Neil, I think the plan probably failed because she was trying to hijack the helicopter with some form of grocery. Michel and Jamila later married in 1999.

Speaker 4 34:36

She's in a sentence then, didn't she?

Speaker 1 34:38

Michel was released in 2003 when he was 52 years old. So he got some time off for good behaviour. Apparently, once he'd met this Jamila and uh escaped attempt failed, he became a bit of a model inmate. So he got some time off, and he was released when he was fifty-two years old. Now he lives with Jamila as a free man, distancing himself from his criminal past, practicing yoga, and writing about his personal transformation in his autobiography. Love saved me from sinking. I don't know where he got sinking from, but Love Saved Me. Love saved me with a massive chopper.

Speaker 4 35:16

I'm going to look at nectarine in in a different way now. I didn't know they were explosive.

Speaker 1 35:20

Well, famously, only French nectarines.

Speaker 4 35:23

Oh, okay, that's good.

Speaker 1 35:24

You have to take the stone out.

Speaker 4 35:25

Right.

Speaker 1 35:26

Fill it with uh nitroglycerin. Make sure you've seal the nectarine fully again with superglue, and then they're very explosive.

Speaker 4 35:35

Hmm. Interesting.

Speaker 1 35:37

Yeah. Didn't know that, did you?

Speaker 4 35:39

See that that I mean there's a there's a thing really, because actually you've taken the mic out of me, but the special forces and people like that could get away with murder, couldn't they? Literally you can go f you can walk down the street with a bag of nectarines and they'll think, Oh, it's got a bag of fruit. But really they're bombs.

Speaker 1 35:54

You consider yourself as being paranoid.

Speaker 4 35:58

No?

Speaker 1 35:59

You don't walk down the street and suddenly jump on somebody because you think they're carrying some bombs when really they've just got a bag of soft fruits.

Speaker 4 36:08

Oh, I've done that before, yeah.

Speaker 1 36:10

And the prison sentence you received was Well, I was told that I was being very vigilant. So listener, what do you think of today's episode of L Bol Monsieur? Do a couple of crims really deserve an honourable mention? Or are we celebrating their tumultuous love affair? His model making was very good, obviously. His creativity in the way he escaped from places. And of course, Nadine's rather spiffing helicopter skills.

Speaker 4 36:45

Yes, that was good. But then she did practice for that, but then he probably didn't practice making guns out of a bar of soap, did he?

Speaker 1 36:52

We never know.

Speaker 4 36:53

You never know.

Speaker 1 36:53

Neil, would you like to tell the listener please where they can find us on your socials?

Speaker 4 37:00

Well, you can find us on many social media like YouTube, uh, Discord and uh TikTok, Instagram, Spotify, and Facebook, and wherever you find us, if you have a good waffin, you can find us where you like.

Speaker 1 37:21

So the problem you've got there is now the listener is going to have to feed that through some sort of translation service from the French into the English. But I think, listener, what he was saying was there, you can find us on just about every platform you've got, including Reddit. Uh we have had some messages through Reddit. Thank you very much for those. All your soundy bits. All your soundy bits. So, if you're happy there, listener, we will see you again next week for another episode of your favourite.

Speaker 4 37:52

It's been emotional. Honourable mentions.

Speaker 1 37:55

Honourable mentions. We'll be back again next week. Until then, stay safe. Don't worry about people carrying fruit based bombs or fruit mace armory of any description. And we'll see you again next time. Au revoir.

Speaker 38:14

Bonjour.

Speaker 1 38:15

I thought au revoir was goodbye in French.

Speaker 38:18

It is. Bonjour listener. Come on allezvous. I am here to thank you for listening to yet another honorable mentions, hilarious history from those two cheeky chappies, Stephen and Neil. I say cheeky, more like borderline racist, do you think? Vive La France! We do not spend all our time eating cheese and stealing the helicopter. I like onions and chupestry too. Shut up! Stop sniggering! Now pay attention. I would like you to please subscribe to Honorable Mentions, so you don't miss a future episode, and you can even go back and listen to some older episodes too. Honorable Mentions, Hilarious History is researched by Stephen Webb and is an Uncover Brothers production. But the real puff to their soufflet is the theme tune, written and performed by Pepe and the Bandits. And so, unless you wish to climb aboard my big French chopper, the time has come where we must part. Or revoir dear listener. Until we meet again, Monchery.