“Bar of the accused”, HQ of lawyers, feminist collages… How the Mazan rape trial infused the city of Avignon – Libération

More or less incredulous counter discussions, development of a new form of support for Gisèle Pelicot… The city vibrated in different ways during these three months of historic trial.

In Avignon, for three months, everyone has been scrutinizing each other, measuring themselves: the hurried step of a journalist at 8 a.m., on a busy day; the complicit laughter of the accused at the café; this lawyer trying to tear off a feminist collage with his fingernail. At each suspension, the hearings escape from the high partitions of the court. Within a perimeter of a few hundred meters, behind the centuries-old ramparts, the streets are invaded by those involved in the Mazan rape trial. A curious microcosm where the civil parties, the 33 accused appearing free, the public, lawyers, judges, journalists rub shoulders.

The geography of the Dyers district is reshaped by these ebbs and flows: the Gerbe d’or bakery or the Chez Nico salad bar for those in a hurry; the Offset or the Cave des pas sages for the long, boozy debriefings of journalists… The frequentation of certain places outlines a social distribution, even if the borders remain shifting. At the Brasserie bar, at the start of the trial, magistrates, journalists on break and the accused lined up on the terrace. The latter appearing there too regularly, the establishment ended up inheriting the sad nickname of “accused bar”. As the weeks went by, Youssef, the boss, asked them not to come back. Diplomatically, without making a big deal out of it.

A defense lawyer said it