French supercentenarians are citizens, residents or emigrants from
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
who have attained or surpassed 110 years of age. , the
Gerontology Research Group
The Gerontology Research Group (GRG) based in Los Angeles, California, USA, is a global social science organization of researchers in various fields of gerontology, primarily concerned with verifying and recording supercentenarians status (peop ...
(GRG) had validated the longevity claims of 161 French
supercentenarians.
France was home to the oldest human being ever whose longevity is well documented,
Jeanne Calment
Jeanne Louise Calment (; 21 February 1875 – 4 August 1997) was a French supercentenarian and the oldest human whose age is documented, with a lifespan of 122 years and 164 days. Her longevity attracted media attention and medical studies ...
, who lived in
Arles
Arles (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Arle ; Classical la, Arelate) is a coastal city and commune in the South of France, a subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the former province of ...
for her entire life of 122 years and 164 days.
The oldest verified Frenchman ever is
Maurice Floquet
Maurice Noël Floquet (25 December 1894 – 10 November 2006) was, aged 111 and 320 days, France's oldest man on record and was one of the last surviving French veterans of World War I. He is also France's longest-lived soldier of all time.
...
, a veteran of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
who lived to age 111 years and 320 days across three centuries (1894–2006).
The oldest known living French person is Marie-Rose Tessier, born 21 May 1910 and aged as of .
100 oldest French people ever
Biographies
Marie Brémont
Marie Marthe Augustine Lemaitre Brémont (née Mésange; 25 April 1886 – 6 June 2001)
was the
oldest recognised person in the world from November 2000 until her death at age 115 years and 42 days.
She was born in
Noëllet,
Maine-et-Loire, on April 25, 1886.
Her first husband, railway worker Constant Lemaître, died from his wartime injuries shortly after the end of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
Brémont remarried to a taxi driver, Florentin Brémont, who died in 1967.
They had no children.
Over the course of her life, she worked as a farmer, a nanny, a
seamstress
A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes custom clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician.
Not ...
and in a
pharmaceutical
A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field an ...
factory.
At 103, she was hit by a car and broke her arm as a result. She died at a retirement home in
Candé
Candé () is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.
History
In the 11th century the village became an important military site for Anjou under baron Rorgon de Candé, at Fort-Castle of Candé.
Candé was noted in 2000-2 ...
,
Maine-et-Loire.
Germaine Haye
Germaine Haye (née Germain; 10 October 1888 – 18 April 2002) was France's oldest living person for about a year, following the death of 115-year-old
Marie Brémont on 6 June 2001 until her own death at age 113 years and 190 days.
["113-jährige Französin in Seniorenheim verstorben"]
(""113-year-old Frenchwoman dies in retirement home"), ShortNews.de, 2002-04-19. Retrieved 2007-11-11. At the time of her death, she was the
oldest living person in Europe and fourth oldest in the world.
Haye lived in the town of
Mortagne-au-Perche
Mortagne-au-Perche () is a commune in the Orne department in Normandy, north-western France.
Heraldry
Population
People
*Geoffrey II, Count of Perche and Mortagne, grandfather of Queen Margaret of L'Aigle.
* Marie of Armagnac, duchess of ...
in
Orne
Orne (; nrf, Ôrne or ) is a département in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne. It had a population of 279,942 in 2019.[Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...]
, western France, since she was 19 years old. She worked as a babysitter and a teacher until her three daughters grew up and left home. She then devoted herself to
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
, publishing poems under the pseudonym Anne Moranget.
In 2000, after she fractured her
femur
The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates wit ...
, she became reliant on to a
wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...
and went to live in the Mortagne-au-Perche retirement home for the final two years of her life. She died in her sleep.
Camille Loiseau
Camille Blanche Loiseau (13 February 1892 – 12 August 2006) was the
oldest living person in France until her death aged 114 years and 180 days. Loiseau was ranked fifth-oldest in the world in the 2007 edition of
Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
. She was the oldest person ever to share a birthday with another living person,
Japanese supercentenarian Toyo Endo.
Loiseau was born in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, the youngest of nine children, four boys and five girls. On 13 August 1910, she married René Frédéric Chadal, but divorced him just fifteen days later. Loiseau never married again, and had no children of her own, but helped raise her nephews. She worked as an accountant until 1957.
She was hospitalised in 1998 due to a fall and moved permanently to the
Hôpital Paul-Brousse
Hôpital Paul-Brousse is a hospital in Villejuif, Val-de-Marne, France. It is named after Paul Brousse
Paul Brousse (; 23 January 18441 April 1912) was a French socialist, leader of the '' possibilistes'' group. He was active in the Jura Federa ...
in
Villejuif
Villejuif () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.
Name
The earliest reference to Villejuif appears in a bill signed by the Pope Callixtus II on 27 November 1119. It refers to Villa Jud ...
,
Val-de-Marne
Val-de-Marne (, "Vale of the Marne") is a department of France located in the Île-de-France region. Named after the river Marne, it is situated in the Grand Paris metropolis to the southeast of the City of Paris. In 2019, Val-de-Marne had a p ...
in January 1999. In 2002, aged 110, she was taken on a trip to revisit her native Paris again. She died in hospital, six months after her one-hundred and fourteenth birthday.
Marie-Simone Capony
Marie-Simone Capony (14 March 1894 – 15 September 2007) was, at age 113, the oldest living person in France.
She became the French
doyenne
Doyen and doyenne (from the French word ''doyen'', ''doyenne'' in the feminine grammatical gender) is the senior ambassador by length of service in a particular country.
In the English language, the meaning of doyen (feminine form: doyenne) h ...
following the death of 114-year-old
Camille Loiseau in August 2006. At the time of her death, aged 113 years and 185 days, due to heart failure, she ranked as the
fifth-oldest person in the world. Capony was born in Charlieu (
Loire
The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...
), and lived in a retirement facility in
Cannes
Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...
. She never married as her
fiancé
An engagement or betrothal is the period of time between the declaration of acceptance of a marriage proposal and the marriage itself (which is typically but not always commenced with a wedding). During this period, a couple is said to be ''fi ...
was killed in action at the beginning of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in 1914.
[ Capony was not able to walk since she turned 100, following surgery on a broken femur, but she still remained in fairly good health considering her age.][
]
Marie-Isabelle Diaz
Marie-Isabelle Diaz (née Rodriguez; 22 February 1898 – 29 October 2011) was posthumously recognised as the oldest living French person from the death of Eugénie Blanchard on 4 November 2010, until her own death a year later. She is also the oldest person ever from the French possession of Réunion. Diaz was born in Sidi Bel Abbès
Sidi Bel Abbès ( ar, سيدي بلعباس), also called Bel Abbès, is the capital (2005 pop. 200,000)''Sidi Bel Abbes'', lexicorient.com (Encyclopaedia of the Orient), internet article. of the Sidi Bel Abbès wilaya (2005 pop. 590,000), Alger ...
, Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
, then an overseas territory of France. She was married and had three children. Her husband died aged 60. After Algerian independence, Diaz left her homeland in 1962. She then settled in Spain with one of her sons and lived in Rouen for a few years. Diaz lived in Réunion from 1983 until her death. She was 113 years and 249 days old when she died.
Mathilde Aussant
Mathilde Aussant (née Gaudet; 27 February 1898 – 23 July 2011) was, at the time of her death, believed to be the oldest verified person in France. However, she was later confirmed as having been the second oldest, when Marie-Isabelle Diaz was verified to have been born a few days earlier than her, on 22 February 1898, and died three months after her.
Aussant was born in Donges
Donges (; br, Donez) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in the region of Pays de la Loire, France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Loire-Atlantique department
* Parc naturel régional de Brière
*André Bizette-Lindet
And ...
, the fifth of eleven children born to François Gaudet and Hélène Halgand. Following the death of her mother, she left Donges for Paris in 1923. She worked as a housekeeper and babysitter. She married a railway worker from Gare Saint-Lazare, who died in 1936. In 1946, she married another railway worker, René Aussant, who died in 1961. Their only child, a daughter, died in 2007, leaving Aussant without any immediate family. In 1999, she moved to a retirement home. In 2008, aged 110, Aussant was awarded the "Medal of the city of Donges". She eventually died at a hospital in the Vendôme
Vendôme (, ) is a subprefecture of the department of Loir-et-Cher, France. It is also the department's third-biggest commune with 15,856 inhabitants (2019).
It is one of the main towns along the river Loir. The river divides itself at the ...
region on 23 July 2011, aged 113 years and 146 days.
Notes
References
{{Longevity
French
Supercentenarians
A supercentenarian (sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian) is a person who has reached the age of 110 years. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of major age-related diseases u ...