Frenchman sued by wife for not having sex
Daily Mail
September 06, 2011 1:26PM
A RELUCTANT husband has been sued for $13,000 by his wife for failing to have sex with her for "a period of several years".
The 51-year-old Frenchman, named only as Jean-Louis, neglected his matrimonial duties to wife Monique in Nice, who sued him for 10,000 euros and took her divorce case to an Appeal Court, The Daily Mail reports.
The court in Aix-en-Provence heard that the couple had been married for 21 years and raised two children on the French Riviera.
But the strains of work and illness prevented Jean-Louis from fulfilling his matrimonial duties, his advocate pleaded.
Announcing her decision the judge quoted the French civil and penal code, which requires both parties in a marriage to respect ‘lifelong community’ requiring them by law to have sexual relations.
Whereas sexual abstinence in a couple, together with violence and infidelity, are cited regularly in hundreds of divorce claims in France, it is extremely rare for a husband or wife to pay financial damages for specifically failing to satisfy sexually.
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The last similar case in France dates back to the year 2000.
In recent years the traditional image of the French lover par excellence has taken a battering from statistics.
The country that put the ‘French’ in front of kiss and purports to speak ‘la langue de l’amour’ is in the process of losing its libido, it would seem.
A survey by the French Institute of Public Opinion questioned 1,000 adults and found that 76% of them ‘suffer relationship problems that due to a poor sex life.
Half of those also polled said they had 'no desire' to make love.
Viewed 13/09/11 at 15:27
Ummm, what? Talk about treating people like reproductive organs