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. At the time of her death, she was the
oldest living person in Europe.
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 born in
Paris, the youngest of nine children, four boys and five girls. On 13 August 1910, she married René Frédéric Chadal, but divorced him 15 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 in
Villejuif,
Val-de-Marne in January 1999. In 2002, aged 110, she was taken on a trip to revisit her native Paris.
Mathilde Aussant Mathilde Aussant (née Gaudet; 27 February 1898 – 23 July 2011) was, until 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, 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 died at a hospital in the
Vendôme region on 23 July 2011, aged 113 years and 146 days.
André Ludwig André Ludwig (6 June 1912 – 7 January 2024) was, at the time of his death, the oldest
World War II veteran in the world. He was born in
La Ferte-sous-Jouarre and never knew his parents, being raised by his grandmother. He trained as a painter and later worked as a fitter. He married Yvonne Ludwig in 1935 and they had one daughter. In 1939, Ludwig was mobilised to fight in the Second World War, but was captured by German forces in
Épinal and deported to Poland. He escaped in 1942, was caught again, and was later sent to a
labour camp in Germany, from which he also escaped. He served in the
French resistance during the final stages of the war. Ludwig later worked as a middle manager and retired in 1972, moving to
Longué-Jumelles, where he would spend the rest of his life. His wife died when he was 100. February 2026) was, at the time of his death, the oldest man in France. He was born in
Vault-de-Lugny, and worked as a teacher. == Notes ==