She had no living heirs, so she sold her apartment to her lawyer, André-François Raffray, under a common French arrangement called a viager. The terms were simple. Raffray would pay her 2,500 francs every month for the rest of her life, and in return he would take ownership of the apartment when she died. She got to keep living there until the end.
For Raffray, it seemed like a brilliant investment. He was 47, half her age, and buying a home at a discount from a woman already in her nineties. The math looked easy. Pay for a few years, then move into a nice apartment he had bought for a fraction of its value.
He had no idea who he was dealing with.
Jeanne Calment was no ordinary 90-year-old. As a girl she had met Vincent van Gogh in her father’s shop and found him dirty and disagreeable. She took up fencing at 85 and rode her bicycle until she was 100. The years rolled on, and she simply kept going.
Raffray paid her every month for 30 years. Then, in 1995, he died at the age of 77, never having spent a single night in the apartment. And the contract did not die with him. His family was legally bound to keep sending Jeanne her monthly payments.
