The French age , Colette Maz, born in 1914, does not discourage art, as the fingertips of the 108-year-old woman did not tire and did not get tired of playing the piano , while her musical activity was followed by thousands of people via the Internet.
Born a month before the outbreak of World War I and a few months after the death of Claude Dubussy, one of her favorite composers, Colette plays the piano four hours a day.
Maz is preparing to release her seventh album, "108 Years of Piano," before the summer, featuring compositions by Gershwin, Piazzolla, Schumann, and Dubussy.
Inside her apartment on the 14th floor of a building overlooking the Seine, the slender woman moves slowly between the three pianos in her living room.
Not only is her longevity impressive, but so is her passion and determination to play the piano.
She describes herself enthusiastically as "young", and believes that "ages are non-existent stories". She notes smilingly that "there are people who remain young and fascinated by everything, while others are fed up with everything and do not like anything or anyone, even their life partners if they exist."
And her son, journalist Fabrice Maz, says proudly that his mother "is probably the last person to continue recording albums."
Since the age of 100, Colette has become a celebrity on social media, and a Facebook page has been dedicated to her, while media outlets from around the world have covered her. Her son believes that it "raises people's spirits, and that is why it is so popular."
Maz explains that his mother "does not suffer from diabetes, cholesterol or pressure," but rather "eats cheese and chocolate...".
Although her memory has weakened due to her advanced age, Colette still remembers the sound of the "Big Bertha Cannon" used by the Germans to bomb Paris during the First World War.
As for the liberation of France, you don't remember anything about it. In response to a question about the identity of the current French president, she often answers that he is Georges Pompidou or Jacques Chirac. And her son notes that she is "aware of the present moment, but she is completely detached from following the news."
"During the Second World War, I was a nurse in Auxerre and I (in 1940) traveled from Paris to Clermont-Ferrand (center) on my bicycle with two suitcases full of clothes," she recalls.
Her vivid memories are often associated with the piano. "When I was young, I had asthma and calmed down when my mother played the violin with the piano teacher who gave me lessons," she says.
"Why do I keep playing? Because the piano is my life and my friend. I need to feel it and hear its sound," she says before playing a piece by Debussy.
Born into a bourgeois Saulnier family in Paris, Colette started playing the piano at the age of five, but her parents were against her becoming a professional pianist. But at the age of fifteen, she entered the Paris College of Music, where she was apprenticed to the famous professors in the field, Alfred Corto and Nadia Boulanger.
Colette, who has taught for decades at the Paris College of Music and the Conservatory of Bagno, is still there. She adopts the Corto technique, which is based on relaxation and flexibility exercises for all muscles.
Her son says, "She is the last one in the world to adopt this method, while many pianists from different countries come to watch her play."
In this way, the perennial, who does not suffer from osteoporosis, kept her hands flexible.
And about the secret of her youth, she says, "I practiced dancing a lot. I think I need to feel my muscles, the abs, the thighs, the arms... All these organs must remain alive."
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Frenchwoman Colette Maz continues to play the piano at the age of 108