With his birthday approaching on March 5th 2012, Pierre Gremion was only a few days short of making it to his 111th year, Radio Fribourg reported on Monday. 

Gremion had moved into the nursing home in 2008 following a stroke. Until then he had lived in an apartment in Bulle, Fribourg, doing his own shopping, making his own jams and pruning trees, online news website 20 Minutes reports.

When asked how he had managed to live so long alone at his age, Gremion said he thought work had conserved him – he had always worked hard.

Although Gremion lost his independence in 2008, that year he also saw his photography, for which he had a passion, published in a book about his life called “Les 106 printemps de Pierre” (The 106 springs of Pierre), by Jean-Bernard Repond.

The book contains several interviews with him, and reveals how he had married twice, and would have again had he known he would live so long. He also had eleven children – he had one fewer than his own parents out of respect – the oldest of whom was 78 at the time the book was published.