Thiberville in Normandy receives windfall worth five times annual budget from a Paris resident who was named after it
Throughout Roger Thiberville’s long life, he never once visited the Normandy town that gave him his last name. Descended from a family of vineyard owners, he inherited property in Paris from his parents and worked as a meteorologist.
But when he died in August at the age of 91 leaving no descendants, the mayor of Thiberville (population 1,773) received a phone call. Thiberville the man had left Thiberville the town most of his estimated €10m fortune.