[77pt77]

> but that wasn’t the agreement, and French law treats a verbal agreement as a contract

True, but the thing with verbal agreements is that it's very difficult to prove what was agreed upon.

Your mother should have just lied.

[madaxe_again]

Hindsight is a bitch. In short, she had no idea what kind of rake she was stepping on, and so saw no need to dissemble. She matter-of-factly told them they were welcome to take what remained, which was about 1/5 of what had been there — and then she got the letter from their lawyers, by which time it was too late.