86 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
86 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
---
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created_at: '2016-03-26T20:57:52.000Z'
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title: A 120-Year Lease on Life Outlasts Apartment Heir (1995)
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url: http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/29/world/a-120-year-lease-on-life-outlasts-apartment-heir.html
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author: tshtf
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points: 53
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story_text:
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comment_text:
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num_comments: 47
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story_id:
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story_title:
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story_url:
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parent_id:
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created_at_i: 1459025872
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_tags:
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- story
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- author_tshtf
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- story_11367422
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objectID: '11367422'
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year: 1995
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---
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**PARIS, Dec. 28—** Andre-Francois Raffray thought he had a great deal
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30 years ago: He would pay a 90-year-old woman 2,500 francs (about $500)
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a month until she died, then move into her grand apartment in a town
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Vincent van Gogh once roamed.
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But this Christmas, Mr. Raffray died at age 77, having laid out the
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equivalent of more than $184,000 for an apartment he never got to live
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in.
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On the same day, Jeanne Calment, now listed in the Guinness Book of
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Records as the world's oldest person at 120, dined on foie gras, duck
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thighs, cheese and chocolate cake at her nursing home near the
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sought-after apartment in Arles, northwest of Marseilles in the south of
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France.
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She need not worry about losing income. Although the amount Mr. Raffray
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already paid is more than twice the apartment's current market value,
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his widow is obligated to keep sending that monthly check. If Mrs.
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Calment outlives her, too, then the Raffray children and grandchildren
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will have to pay.
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"In life, one sometimes makes bad deals," Mrs. Calment said on her
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birthday last Feb. 21.
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The apartment is currently unoccupied, according to local media.
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Buying apartments "en viager," or "for life," is common in France. The
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elderly owner gets to enjoy a monthly income from the buyer, who gambles
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on getting a real estate bargain -- provided the owner dies in due time.
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Upon the owner's death, the buyer inherits the apartment, regardless of
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how much was paid.
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Mrs. Calment, who has lived through the administrations of 17 French
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presidents, has proven the nightmare of all those who buy real estate
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"en viager."
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Mrs. Calment, physically active all her life, rode a bicycle until she
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was 100, and until 1985 occupied the several large rooms of her
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apartment on the second floor of a classic old Provencal building in the
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center of Arles, where Mr. Raffray was her notary public. She moved that
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year into a nursing home, which is now named after her.
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She has outlived her husband, her daughter and her grandson, who died in
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a car crash, and has no direct descendants.
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Mrs. Calment seemed to offer some consolation to the Raffrays when asked
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on her last birthday for her vision of the future, she replied: "Very
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brief."
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Born in Arles in 1875, Mrs. Calment recalls working in her father's shop
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at age 14 and selling colored pencils and canvases to Van Gogh, the
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Dutch impressionist who depicted Arles in several of his vibrant
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paintings.
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On Oct. 18, the Guinness Book of Records listed her as the world's
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oldest person able to authenticate her age with official records, mostly
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civil and religious documents.
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Photo: Thirty years ago, Andre-Francois Raffray, bottom, agreed to pay
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Jeanne Calment 2,500 francs a month to get her apartment when she died;
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she was 90 then. She has not died yet, but this week he did. (Associated
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Press)
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