Small town shocked to inherit $10 million fortune left by man who had never been there

They’re in the monnaie.Local officials in an “unremarkable” small town in France were shocked to discover that a wealthy Parisian had left them a fortune — completely without warning.

Roger Thiberville had never visited the Normandy burg of Thiberville, but when he died at 91 last year without an heir, he surprisingly chose to leave an estimated $10.2 million to the place — pop.1,773 — that gave him his family last name, The Guardian reported.“It’s an exceptional sum of money.

Obviously the amount is beyond imagination,” Thiberville’s mayor, Guy Paris, gushed to a local radio station.“We don’t yet know what we will do with it.

The princely sum was more than five times the municipal budget, he said.“We’re not going to spend it all.We’re going to manage this dowry as we’ve always done with our municipal budget – with prudence and responsibility,” hizzoner assured.

First on the wish list — paying off a bank loan of just over $400,000.taken out to build a new school.

Paris said that a hoped-for public garden, boules court and football pitch were also now possible in light of the gift.Thiberville the man is said to have worked as a meteorologist, living “humbly” in Paris, where he inherited a portfolio of properties from family.

Besides handing over his worldly possessions to a group of strangers, he also asked for his ashes to be kept in the local cemetery.“Monsieur Thiberville did not demand anything in return for his legacy, but we owe him at least that,” the mayor said.Thiberville the town, which The Guardian called “unremarkable,” is home to a defunct ribbon factory and little else of note.

The town does not have to pay inheritance tax on the generous gift, per French law.Two neighboring villages that decided not to merge with Thiberville to allow all three muncipalities to benefit from federal programs offered to places with populations of over 2,000 will not be benefiting from the financial windfall, it...