A man left a €10 million fortune to a small French town – which he had never visited.

A small town in France has been surprised by a "surprise gift" after a man who has never visited the area left his €10 million fortune to the municipality in his will.

According to foreign media, the Telegraph reports, it is about Roger Thiberville, a meteorologist who lived in Paris, who died last August at the age of 91 without descendants.

In his will, he left his legacy to the Normandy town of Thiberville – with which he shared his surname – and its 1800 inhabitants.

Guy Paris, the city's mayor for 28 years, received a call from a lawyer who broke the news.

The windfall represents five times the municipality's annual budget and, because the city is a public body, it will not have to pay any inheritance tax.

"It's an incredible amount of money. It's clear that the amount is beyond imagination," Paris told local radio station France Bleu. "We still don't know what we're going to do with that money."

"We will not spend it all. We will manage this 'gift' as we have always done with our municipal budget – with prudence and responsibility."

Thiberville is said to have been born in 1932 to a family of winegrowers in Mantes-la-Jolie, located 50 kilometers west of Paris.

He inherited the fortune from his parents, who had initially left the money to his sister, but after she died without heirs, it was handed over to him.

The late Thiberville made only one request – that his ashes, along with a plaque with his name on it, be placed in the town's local cemetery.

The town of Thiberville is a typical Norman town which boasts a 19th-century villa, but it is far from a tourist destination or a place that makes national headlines.

Its chairman said plans were being drawn up to ensure the money was spent in the best possible way. /Telegraph/