Thiberville is a tiny commune nestled within Normandy in the north of France. Historically, its population has been quite small over the decades, with a 2022 estimate of only 1,765 people. Yet, one person with extremely loose ties to the small town, so loose that he had never even visited the town in his life, left the town €10 million in his will.
A Parisian meteorologist by the name of Roger Thiberville was born in 1932. His family owned a vineyard about 50 km west of Paris. The vineyard was worth quite a bit of money, which was all handed down to his sister when they passed away. And then when his sister passed away without any heirs, it was all handed down to Roger.
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Roger then passed on the majority of this €10 million inheritance to the town of Thiberville, seemingly only because he shared a last name with it.
Parisian Man Leaves Millions of Euros To Small French Town He’d Never Visited
The town’s mayor was surprised, to say the least. He was also surprised to find that the only strings attached to the money were that Tirberville requested that his ashes be placed in a local cemetery.
By the way, I have to point out that not only are we dealing with a guy who shares a last name with a French town, but the mayor of that French town is named Guy Paris. If all of this weren’t 100% factual you would be accusing me of lazy stereotyping, not even particularly clever stereotyping at that. This is some real JK Rowling-level ethnic stereotyping.
The donation is five times the town’s annual budget. It will be used to fund various projects, along with repaying a €400,000 loan the town used to build a new primary school for the town’s children. Some of the projects in the pipeline include a bowling green with photovoltaic cells to provide shade, a public garden with a play area, and a soccer field.
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