Small town inherited £8.4 million after being left it in will from man that had never visited

It's not very often a whole city wins the lottery, but that's pretty much what's happened to a small town in France.

The Normandy burg of Thiberville, known for its picturesque countryside and traditional Norman architecture, has a population of just 1,773.

Their most notable attraction is the Saint-Taurin church.

Roger Thiberville - the descendent of a family of vineyard owners - had never travelled to the city.

Locals in Thiberville were amazed by the gesture (Google Maps)

But before he passed away last year, he made the decision to leave behind his £8.4 million fortune to the town.

The reason - it's the city that gave him his family last name.

“It’s an exceptional sum of money. Obviously the amount is beyond imagination,” Thiberville’s mayor, Guy Paris, said to a local radio outlet, according to The Guardian.

“We don’t yet know what we will do with it.

“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.”

Well it seems the mayor has partly decided what he wants to do with the money.

First on the list is paying off a bank loan of $400,000 (£33,000), used to build a new school for local students.

He also hopes to develop a football pitch, a boules court, and a public garden too.

The wealthy individual had never visited the town (Google Maps)

“We have projects: a public garden with a play area, a boules ground with solar panels that will serve as shade, the renovation of the elementary school, a synthetic football pitch,” he said.

Given that Thiberville worked as a meteorologist, the mayor claims he worked 'humbly' in Paris, where he owned a number of properties that had been passed down from the family.

His one wish - to keep his ashes in the local cemetery.

“Monsieur Thiberville did not demand anything in return for his legacy, but we owe him at least that,” mayor Paris said.

Apart from that, Thiberville, as a town, doesn't really have much going on.

There's a defunct ribbon factory and that's about it.

But the good thing is, by state law, the city doesn't have to pay any inheritance tax on the generous gift.

Whereas in the UK, the standard Inheritance Tax rate is 40 percent and it’s only charged on the part of your estate that’s above the threshold.

Alongside the warmer weather, the tax alone seems like a decent reason to head to Thiberville.