Ismael the Inexhaustible

For seven years, Ismael Franconville, 71, lived as a widower. Having been married for 37 years, the Normandy barber kept looking for a second wife, and in 1970 he found her. But after only three months, Denise Franconville, also in her 70s, decided that her spouse was far too amorous for her tastes. In a rare decree, a Dieppe court accorded Denise a divorce on the grounds of her husband's "excessive virility."

In defending himself, Ismael told the court: "I enjoyed myself when I felt like enjoying myself. I did everything that is normal for a married man. My wife was crabby, sulking and egoistic." The woman judge, Marie-Therese Chesnelong, disagreed. Observed she: "Mme. Franconville claims that her husband, despite his advanced age, showed a devouring sexual appetite, considering his spouse an object at his complete, total and permanent disposal." Judge Chesnelong said that Ismaels conduct ran "from tenderness to the most refined bestiality. He could not pass near his spouse without trying to caress or kiss her, or to lift her skirt with a view to touching her. Several times a day he pursued her with assiduity, covering her with kisses on her entire body. And these aphrodisiac acts seemed the most natural thing in the world to him. Mme. Franconville justly called him a satyr."

To make matters worse, France's most distinguished legal journal. La Gazette du Palais, published the case in toto. Soon the story of Ismael was being publicized by the press, radio and TV. Bringing a $1,000 damage suit against the venerable Gazette, Ismael asserted: "The court's diploma of virility, reproduced in the press, has done me great harm." The Gazette's lawyer asked: "What's he complaining about? His barbershop is never empty any more. Men envy him, and women admire him."

A plump, short, silver-haired fellow, Ismael dresses as if he were 50 or younger, wearing a fashionable black turtleneck, red corduroy shirt, hound's-tooth sports jacket with velvet collar, and snap-brim hat. In Neufchatel-en-Bray (pop. 6,000), where he lives and works in an old folks' home, Ismael now shrugs off the snickers that greet his name. He chuckles over the judge's decree himself and says: "Her decision was ridiculous. Do I have bestiality written all over my face? After all, I'm not different from any other man."

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