Montreuil -- Therese Clerc might be 84 but the ardent feminist has won a 10-year battle to set up the dream house of her golden years: a self-managed group home with "other old gals" -- and all financed by public funds.

"We're militants," proclaimed the octogenarian, still trim with her long silver hair neatly tied in a pony tail.

She and friends had no desire to be bored, or sidelined, in traditional, often costly old folks homes.

"We don't want to be old ladies all sitting in front of a television," she said. "I'm a night-bird and late riser, so dinners at six p.m. -- no thanks!"

But Clerc also said no to staying in her home. "Living alone can be dangerous as one ages and the solitude crushing," she said.

The catalyst for rethinking the future was the "very difficult" death of her mother. "I didn't want to put my own children through that," she said. She wanted to "age joyously" with other women and "remain intelligent and active".

And with a dose of humour -- the group calls themselves the "Baba Yagas", a term for old witches in Slavic folklore known for eating children but also sought out for their wisdom.

Clerc's vision was a collective home, managed solely by the women and founded on solidarity among the residents. The 60-somethings would help the 90-somethings.

If residents develop severe illness or Alzheimer's disease, "we will keep those who are ill as long as we can," she said. And if hospitalisation is required, "we will continue to accompany them. Since we're about twenty women, we will go visit them in shifts, each taking a turn every twenty days."

The idea of senior-specific co-housing isn't new -- gaining ground in Denmark, Germany and notably the United States where millions of Baby Boomers are hitting their 60s.

But the Baba Yagas, true to French social welfare values, pushed for public funds for their all-women, 25-apartment house, now under construction with the group scheduled to move in at the end of next year.

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