Madame Calment

After 1934 either Jeanne Calment or Yvonne Calment was known as Madame Jeanne Calment who is now famous for being the oldest person among archicentenarians but is it true? A DNA test can help to figure out who was she before 1934.

Censuses
In 1936, she is counted in Gambetta Street in Arles. She was born in 1875 and she lives with Fernand Calment, and Louise Gauzargues (born 1894), maid, cook. Joseph Billot-Calment, householder, merchant, having Fernand as employer and Frédéric are counted in a separate apartment, next to hers.

In 1954, she lives with Joseph Billot. Jeanne Calment is mentioned as mother. Frédéric Billot (medical doctor) and Renée Billot are counted in a separate apartment next to hers.

In 1962, she lives with Joseph Billot ([M corrected as V]). Frédéric and Renée Billot (dental surgeon) are counted in a separate apartment next to hers.

In 1975, she lives by herself. Renée remarried and lives with her husband in a separate apartment next to hers.

Photo of Madame Calment in Versailles in 1937
This photo was shared by Robert Billot. Madame Calment has a youthful appearance but her hair is entirely grey in sharp contrast to both Jeanne's and Yvonne's hair from the joint photo taken in the early 1930s. Whoever became Madame Calment had to either undergo unusually quick hair greying or have used hair dye.

Photos of Madame Calment in the 1940s
This photo was shared by Claudie Taque, niece of Renée Yvonne Taque and widow of Frédéric Billot-Calment. Claudie dated it May 1943, half a year after death of Fernand Calment. It was probably taken at villa La Miquellete in Paradou where Madame Calment preferred to live. The dog was probably a hunting dog Jack Russel. The veins on her hands are very big and similar to the veins on Yvonne Calment's hands. This photo was labeled as Jeanne Calment in various newspapers found by François Robin-Champigneul, one of which dated it 1945. However it could be as late as 1950 as well. There are several scans of this photo which could have been used for an ID card for Madame Calment. The pattern of grey hair visible in this photo is similar to the 1943 photo with her dog. Trauma above her right eye is visible. The photo on the left was shared by Robert Billot, who was born in 1931. Robert is standing between Madame Calment and Frédéric Billot. The date of this photo is estimated as around 1946 or 1947. Robert's mother Jeanne Guillet is sitting between Robert and Frédéric. Jeanne Marie Jouve, the mother of Joseph Billot, is sitting on the left - she died in 1947.

Testimony of Didier David, a friend of Frédéric Billot-Calment who saw Madame Calment in the late 1940s, is on the right.

Photos of Madame Calment in the late 1950s
These photos were shared by Claudie Taque and shown on France 2 in 2019. Madame Calment is pictured near Joseph Billot. Frédéric is standing while François Calment is probably sitting on the right.



Under the official story, these two photos are of the same person ~40 years apart. While the resemblance is striking, Madame Calment's jaw is significantly different from Jeanne's. Jeanne's jaw differs in length and shape, being observably less protruding. Madame Calment's jaw is less rounded and more protruding, corresponding much more closely with Yvonne's jaw.

Other differences are also visible, such as the position of the ear (note the location of the earrings in both photos), as well as the size and shape of the nose and nostrils. While similar changes occur naturally through aging, the physical differences in the case of Jeanne Calment are unusual in their nature and acceleration.

Photo of Madame Calment in 1962
This photo was shared by Robert Billot. Madame Calment is seating with Joseph Billot. The location of this photo is Paradou, where Madame Calment spent most of her time after 1934.

Photo of Madame Calment in 1986


This picture appeared on the cover of the October 1986 edition of the "Arles Magazine". This photo is especially important because it links the 'highlander' photo with later photos of Madame Calment, dismissing claims that the highlander photo depicts somebody else.

Rumors


Calments had many servants and one of them probably told her granddaughter about the switch. This granddaughter told the story to the director of the nursery home, but she didn't believe it. This granddaughter was identified and is alive but refuses to talk.

In 2006, French insurer Jacques de Baudus published an article in his newspaper in which he said that during the dinner a very respectable guest told nine respectable persons that a state insurance company [identified as Caisse Nationale de Prévoyance (CNP)], which paid a lifetime annuity to Jeanne Calment for a long time, discovered that it was a daughter of Jeanne Calment who received the rent, but, by agreement with the authorities, it kept the matter secret given how much the character of the “doyenne of the French” had by then become legendary. The details of the story are not clear. According to it, Jeanne Calment signed this contract before her death in 1934 (thus creating a potential motive for the ID switch). Equally, the insurer could in fact refer to the viager contract which Madame Calment signed in 1963. The lifetime annuity was transferred to the insurance company and thus she could profit from being younger than her official age. The source of the rumor, Mr. Boyer, told New Yorker that an official who told him that Madame Calment was in fact Yvonne Calment is now dead and the details of the investigation are unknown.

French journalist Joel Lecompt said that another insurer who discovered the fraud is alive but refuses to talk. Officially sanctioned investigation in the archives of CNP might provide more credibility to this anecdotal evidence.

There exists an independent rumor from French journalist Joel Lecompt that an insurer who is still alive discovered the fraud but doesn't want to talk about it.

According to the son of the doctor Maurice Gilbert who was in charge of The Belvedere Sanatorium in Leysin in the early 1930s, he told his children that Jeanne Calment was his patient there.

Signature evolution
Here are samples of signatures written by Jeanne Calment and Mme Calment between 1896 and 1992. The signatures show an evolution over time, as expected, but between 1927 and the 1930s a more unnatural change occurs. The initial “J” changes shape at the top from pointed to rounded making the loop more symmetrical, while the final “t” loses its underline tail. While signatures can begin to show changes over periods of only 6 months, changes of this type indicate a difference of writing style that is not normally seen in someone in their 50s. For the next forty years after 1930 the signature again changes only by natural forms of evolution. The 1930s signature which first shows the change is from an identity card. It is possible that Yvonne forged the signature on this card in her mother’s name so that she could use it to validate other forged signatures. The drastic change from 16 to 24 February 1933 hints that it was the period when Yvonne was trying to settle her way of signing as Jeanne. The writing style of Madame Calment was similar to Yvonne's signature (compare the "m" here).

Pleural sequelae
According to the memoirs written by Doctor Levraud, Madame Calment had pleural sequelae on chest x-rays which hints that she could have active tuberculosis in the past, though her medical history was free from any disease. The presence of pleural sequelae and decalcified bones on her x-rays was confirmed in February 2020 by a reporter from The New Yorker who consulted Madame Calment's medical records. However, this was narrowly interpreted as "pleural effusion" and was incorrectly relayed to a doctor who said that Madame Calment could have been "touched" by tuberculosis. However, it was actually pleural sequelae which is indicative of a wider range of trauma and can often be evidence of a more severe bout of illness, often serious tuberculosis.

Death
Madame Calment died in solitude (visitors were almost entirely prohibited during the last year of her life) and was buried hastily without an autopsy.

Comparisons


The image above illustrates how difficult it is to identify Mme Calment by comparison of her pictures with earlier photos of Jeanne and Yvonne. On the right we see two pictures of Mme Calment from around 1943-1945. The colour bands in her hair above the right temple confirm that these are the same person from around the same time. In the top picture she is smiling and off-guard and she resembles the earlier images of Jeanne to the left. The lower picture was a formal pose and here she has a closer resemblance to pictures of Yvonne. Jeanne (~1930) is on the left, Yvonne (~1920) is on the right and Madame Calment (~1945) is in the middle. The relative size of the nose is the most visible difference. Despite the ~30year time gap young Yvonne has much more similar facial fat distribution to Madame Calment than Jeanne. Everybody who knew Madame Calment in person including Robert Billot (born in 1931) who met Madame Calment often since 1930s and Claudine Serena who cared of her in the nursery home claim that the woman on the left is not her thus confirming the identity switch hypothesis. Jeanne and Yvonne were both very similar to Madame Calment



Both Yvonne Calment and Madame Calment had horizontal shoulders unlike Jeanne Calment. The nose of Jeanne Calment is on the left, Madame Calment in the middle, and Yvonne Calment on the right.

Yvonne Calment and Madame Calment have a wider nose than Jeanne Calment (compared to the iris).

Madame Calment seems to have different relative sizes of phalanges of 2 and 3 fingers than Jeanne Calment on the switch photo.

Hand of Madame Calment in 1943 on the left, hands of Jeanne Calment on the right, fingers 2 and 3 are different for Madame Calment. Large vein on the hand of Yvonne Calment is same as on Madame Calment's hand.

Hand of Yvonne is on the left, Madame Calment center and Jeanne on the right.



Madame Calment was strikingly similar to both Yvonne and Jeanne Calment but she had more round face than Jeanne. Photos taken with similar optics/camera position are chosen so it is possible to overimpose them (it was necessary to reflect photo of Yvonne to match the corresponding photo of Madame Calment. Enhanced in Remini app, rotated with 3D reconstruction cvl-demos. Yvonne to Madame progression is on the right, Jeanne to Madame is on the left. Here same points serve faces of Yvonne and Madame Calment while different points are needed for Jeanne because of the different skull shape. Yvonne Calment is on the left, Madame Calment center and Jeanne Calment on the right. Enhanced in Remini app. Yvonne Calment is left and above, Madame Calment is in the middle and Jeanne Calment is on the right. Yvonne Calment is on the left, Madame Calment is on the right. Wrinkles and other facial features match very well both on enhanced and original photos. Abscess near mouth and swollen eyelid could be both consequences of tuberculosis.

The image on the left shows Jeanne in first column, rejuvenated Madame Calment in the center and Yvonne in the third column. On the enhanced by Wechat app and transformed/colorized photos all images are given same facial expression and Madame Calment is rejuvenated using FaceApp which does not change facial bones and nose shape. One can see that Madame Calment is very similar to both Jeanne and Yvonne while Yvonne's appearance changes from photo to photo. There exists anecdotal evidence that people confused them in twenties. It is this similarity that could make the switch possible. For other comparisons see Yvonne Calment and Jeanne Calment.

The nose of Madame Calment rejuvenated with Faceapp looks much more like the nose of Yvonne Calment than the nose of Jeanne Calment.

DNA tests
Contrary to widespread belief, DNA tests of the switch hypothesis are possible without exhumation of the bodies from the family grave.

According to the thoroughly verified tree (drawn by François Robin-Champigneul), Jeanne Calment and Fernand Calment were double second cousins. This means that Yvonne was the product of in-breeding between her parents with 5th degree consanguinity. This would result in detectable autozygosity in her DNA characterised by long runs of homozygous genes. On average one in 32 allele pairs in her genome would be inherited from the same common ancestor.

Normal levels of recombination in autosomes means that these homozygous genes occur in long runs of homozygosity (ROH) which can be detected and counted once the genome has been fully sequenced. For the level of consanguinity between Yvonne’s parents, the actual count should be around 2 to 5% of the genome. DNA tests now in use can distinguish counts as low as 1% from background. To complete the test a number of laboratories should independently measure the FROH (fractional ROH) from SNP data for all the autosomes with a range of threshold sizes e.g. 1Mb and 8Mb. Jeanne had no known common ancestors, so with a single test of Mme Calment’s DNA it should be possible to settle the question of her identity with a high degree of confidence.

Other DNA tests could be used such as consanguinity with known living blood relatives of Yvonne who are not blood relatives of Jeanne. In particular, there are several living descendants of Emile Fassin, the former mayor of Arles who married Anne Felix, the sister of Yvonne’s paternal grandmother. Some are second cousins once or twice removed from Yvonne Calment, but have no close blood relation to Jeanne Calment. A test based on complete DNA sequencing can easily distinguish this relationship. This will be largely independent of the autozigosity test which uses lines of ancestry passing through Yvonne’s mother and her paternal grandfather.

Measurements of the epigenetic clock and other biomarkers could also be attempted but this may require a control study of other supercentenarians whose verification is also uncertain. Jean-Dausset foundation in Paris holds suitable bio-samples from Mme Calment that could be used for this purpose if legal barriers can be removed. There is also a possibility that stamps on letters sent by Mme Calment to relatives could yield DNA samples. We understand that French law is strict on the use of DNA testing but tests for scientific purposes are permitted. A legal decision may be required to determine if this use of the DNA is possible under the privacy conditions it was given. We urge the gerontological community of France to support organisation for this to be carried out. According to Jeanne Calment’s validator Jean-Marie Robine, she eagerly accepted brain imaging and blood tests to investigate her longevity.