“How would you react when someone killed the person you saw coming out of your wife’s womb?”, asked Pascal during a long walk on the Vercors plateau.
For several months, we accompanied this Hautes-Alpes shepherd in a life he no longer recognized. There is still daily life and work but the son is no longer there. Paul Varry was struck one night in October 2024, during an altercation with a motorcyclist who was driving in the cycle lane.
What should not have happened cost the life of a young man who would have turned 29 this week. The investigation must determine whether Paul was intentionally killed by this man who remains in pre-trial custody.
From now on Pascal lives between two worlds. A part of his soul remains on Boulevard Malesherbes, right where the tragedy occurred.
Pascal meets witnesses there, people who tried to save his son. Like this delivery man, a volunteer firefighter, who described the incident as best he could to a father who was trying to understand: “It was an unequal fight. It’s not fair, repeated the shepherd, the beret on his head. Paul should have been there. I’ll never see him again.”
Then there is the Hautes-Alpes sheepfold. There are still animals but Pascal has started painting. White bicycle. He and his friends hung dozens of bicycles in a valley in the southern Alps.
Natalie’s life
Several hundred meters away, Nathalie felt the same pain. He also lost his son. From now on, his life was punctuated by trips back and forth to Paris.
In the capital, he increased the number of meetings. He wanted his son’s memory to live on. So, Nathalie chose to expose herself, testifying publicly.
At a rally in Paul’s honor on the Place de la République, he had the courage to speak. From now on, the actress is facing a media battle. He was the one who contacted us to talk, he had no idea that we would be following him for 6 months. Neither do we.
On the set of the show “It starts today”, Nathalie confronted Faustine Bollaert. Once again, Paul’s mother fights for her son, a “cycling activist for a peaceful city.” “Paul left an indelible mark on our lives and his absence is deeply felt,” wrote one unnamed Parisian cyclist.
When she returned to her home in Faurie (Hautes-Alpes), Nathalie found her son’s room, happy childhood photos among animals and… An altar. The Virgin Mary, Buddha and many other deities were there to ensure Paul’s “afterlife.”
The mother wonders “how to survive” after losing one of her children. He still didn’t have the answers but sought comfort in spirituality and esotericism.
Typical bickering
Separated for years, his parents put their differences over Paul behind them. This summer, they together attended the inauguration of the Paul Varry bike path at the Paris Center, as a way of continuing their son’s cause.
Together, they chose to build the tomb with their own hands. They often met at the cemetery to make Paul’s final resting place. And after? Later there will be a trial.
The father had sent a letter to the investigating judge which he could not read without crying: “Mr Judge, a barbarian hit my son with his car…”
Pascal and Nathalie are now waiting to face their perpetrators in a trial that will likely take place in 2026. Watch our documentary at the top of the article.
