French woman lived 122 years. The secret of longevity.

French woman lived 122 years. The secret of longevity.

Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment was born in 1875 and died in 1997. Calment saw Vincent Van Gogh with her own eyes and lived through two world wars. At the time of her death, her earthly life lasted 122 years and 164 days!

What helped Zhanna live longer than anyone else in the world?

✅Chocolate, wine and cigarettes

Madame Calment had to wait a good hundred years to become a celebrity. During these years, she: never worked, was known as a sweet tooth, drank red wine and ate 900 grams of chocolate a week.

And also, what is very surprising and strange, she smoked. When this grown girl turned 117, doctors persuaded her to quit smoking.

✅Sports and activities

But it wasn't just her strange diet and carefree attitude that helped Kalman reach 120. She was an active sportswoman throughout her life.

Since childhood, the bicycle was Jeanne's favorite means of transportation. She rode it with pleasure until she turned a hundred years old. But Kalman took up fencing relatively late - at 85.

Throughout her life, Zhanna also played tennis and loved to walk long distances.

✅Recipe from Madame Calment.

Zhanna herself stated that she owed her longevity to the consumption of fruits and olive oil, which she not only ate, but also rubbed into her skin.

Scientists have recognized the undeniable benefits of such a diet. Fruits, butter and chocolate are rich in natural antioxidants that slow down the aging process and rejuvenate the body. It has been proven that almost all known centenarians today consumed a lot of chocolate and butter.

✅Keep calm, just keep calm!

According to many, the secret to the French woman's longevity is her composure.

"I think she was biologically immune to stress,"
— noted Jean-Marie Robin, a gerontologist and author of a book about Jeanne Calment.

Reporters visited the cheerful old lady every year on her birthday. One of them, saying goodbye to 117-year-old Calment, said: "Until next year, maybe." To which Jeanne ironically remarked: "Why not? I don't think you look so bad!" Perhaps wit also helps to live long.

💪 And finally, it was nothing less than longevity that turned 90-year-old Madame Calment into a successful businesswoman. Left without heirs, 90-year-old Calment in 1965 used the services of a lawyer named André-François Raffrey, who took out a 'reverse mortgage'. According to the agreement, Monsignor Raffrey was to pay Calment 2,500 French francs a month while she was alive, and after her death, her apartment was to go to him.

For André-François, then 47, the deal seemed attractive enough. But the elderly Frenchwoman simply outlived him. He died thirty years later, and his family had to continue making payments to Jeanne. At the time of her death, Raffrey's relatives had paid twice the price of Calment's apartment.