Our neighbor is 105. Technically her home address is at an EHPAD (retirement home) but we see Christian so often across the street at her daughter’s house we think that she’s part of the neighborhood. On most Sundays we give her a hand getting the wheelchair across the threshold and for that we are rewarded with glasses of champagne, sometimes lunch, and always a lively conversation that often includes reminiscences that might go almost back to her birth year of 1919. We’ve heard first-hand accounts of sorting through the rubble of her grandparents’ house even years after WWI ended, living under Nazi occupation as a radio journalist in Paris and Luxembourg, and obtaining the right to vote and to open a bank account without her husband’s permission. I wondered about those dates and other significant events in French history over the last century.

With an Internet search, it was easy enough to assemble a “top 10” of what I thought might be important dates to Christian and perhaps even ones on which she had reported. What made them especially meaningful was knowing someone who had personal experience with all of these and could talk about them. I started with 1919 and while I wouldn’t expect anyone to recall something about their first year alive it seemed like a logical place to begin.

• 1919: The Treaty of Versailles is signed, officially ending World War I. France recovers Alsace-Lorraine.
• 1939-1945: World War II breaks out, and France is invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany. The French Resistance fights against the collaborationist Vichy regime and the Axis powers. 
• 1944: The Allied forces land in Normandy and Provence, and liberate Paris and most of France from Nazi occupation. Women obtain the right to vote and to be elected.
• 1965: Women gain the right to work without their husband’s consent, and to open a bank account in their own name.
• 1968: A series of student protests, workers’ strikes, and civil unrest, known as May 68, shakes France. The protests lead to social and cultural changes, such as more liberal attitudes, women’s rights, and decentralization.
• 1975: The Simone Veil law legalizes abortion.
• 1981-1995: François Mitterrand becomes the first socialist president of the Fifth Republic, and implements a series of reforms, such as abolishing the death penalty, nationalizing industries, and decentralizing power. He also promotes European integration and signs the Maastricht Treaty, creating the European Union.
• 2013: The Taubira law legalizes same-sex marriage and adoption.
• 2017: Emmanuel Macron becomes the youngest president of France, at the age of 39, defeating the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
• 2024: Women’s reproductive rights are written into the French constitution and France hosts the Summer Olympics.

According to one of our local newspapers, France has 30,000 centenarians, a number that has increased 30-fold in less than 50 years. They interviewed a woman in Toulouse who explained how she has been able to remain in her home at the age of 110. Madame Tchavdaroff replied, “In my life, I’ve done a lot of walking, and I still have a cheerful disposition.” That certainly applies to our neighbor and we think that she would add, “sharing a glass of champagne with friends” to the list. Happy birthday!