Jeanne Calment and the Bet on Her Death

In 1965, a lawyer in Arles thought he had found the safest bargain of his life. André-François Raffray was 47 and a notary, a man who dealt in contracts for a living. Jeanne Calment was 90, a widow who lived in a spacious second-floor flat in the center of town. Her husband, her daughter and her only grandson were all dead, so there was nobody to inherit the place. Raffray offered a French arrangement called a viager. He would pay her 2,500 francs every month, about 500 dollars, for the rest of her life. When she died, the flat would be his. He worked out that even if she reached 100, he would still get the property at a discount. Calment signed. He expected to wait only a few years. This is the story of that bet, and the woman who kept winning it.