In 1965, in the French town of Arles, a 90-year-old woman named Jeanne Calment made a deal that looked like a gift to the other side.

He had no idea who he was dealing with.

Jeanne Calment was no ordinary 90-year-old. As a girl she had met Vincent van Gogh in her father’s shop and found him dirty and disagreeable. She took up fencing at 85 and rode her bicycle until she was 100. The years rolled on, and she simply kept going.

Raffray paid her every month for 30 years. Then, in 1995, he died at the age of 77, never having spent a single night in the apartment. And the contract did not die with him. His family was legally bound to keep sending Jeanne her monthly payments.

She finally died in 1997, at 122 years and 164 days old, the longest verified human life in history. By then, Raffray and his family had paid more than double the apartment’s worth.

Calment, sharp to the very end, summed it up perfectly. “In life,” she said, “one sometimes makes bad deals.”