Written by By Jack Bernhardt, CNN
“The Pink Plaster Catwalk,” looks down at the road in front of her family’s chateau in Vaucluse. It was an artistic inspiration for Arlette Restorer , one of six young women murdered by Gerard Depardieu in 1993. It was the name of her book.
The Vaucluse Garden is finally back. It’s just a few steps from the 17th-century French chateau that Restorer grew up in and looks out on the Mediterranean. It’s finally a palace again, she says, a place for entertaining, and for entertaining people she didn’t know.
It’s been 26 years since Depardieu, a wealthy French actor, killed Restorer, Anna Carige, Lalla Essaydi, Marie Boulanger, Wendy Tan White and Larisa Svetlova.
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After losing time together and suffering discrimination (and several attempted suicides), and for a long time enjoying a celebrity lifestyle (not least the christening of his fourth child in the chateau), Depardieu eventually served 18 years in prison for the killings. The other four women’s remains were never found.
Restorer wrote her book “The Pink Plaster Catwalk” because she wanted to remember all the beautiful girls in her life.
But it wasn’t a cathartic account for Restorer, who is close to overcoming a suicide attempt after the murders in 1995.
In 2008, he was allowed to release a film about the murders, and he’s written letters of apology. But the French justice system took so long to try him that it is almost 20 years now since he was released on parole. And as his case is not definitively closed, he’s now reported to be considering an appeal.
Her book is intended as a message of hope and love.
“I haven’t written it with a ‘Victory’ spirit in mind,” Restorer says. “It’s more a question of whether or not to try one more time. I wasn’t sure if it’s ever going to get to a ‘Happy Ending’. But if it does and there is a ‘Happy Ending’, it would be very important for me to tell it.”