At the Rainbow retirement village near Montpellier, residents will enjoy majority status, perhaps for the first time in their lives. For the Rainbow is France’s first village for gay men and women.

While such retirement homes have flourished in the US, they’re virtually unheard of in Europe or the UK. Australia’s first and much touted gay retirement village in Victoria remains stuck in development, some years after the plans were first launched.

It’s claimed as many as 1.2million people in the UK alone are aged over 55 and gay: people who are significantly more likely to be single and live alone, and less likely to have children or close relationships with family, leaving them with fewer choices when the need comes for care.

Many people who have been out all their lives head back into the closet in aged care homes to avoid discrimination. Places like the Rainbow offer a viable solution, particularly now that the first generation of openly gay men and women have begun retiring.