Portrait of Louis XIII by Philippe de Champaigne (1602-74) - from WikipediaBut one young couple from the city of Millau in the southern département of Aveyron have already hit their own personal jackpot - albeit much smaller.
Around two weeks ago, according to the local commercial station, radio Totem, the couple were clearing out part of the basement of their house in the centre of the city when they came across a jar.
It looked innocent enough, buried 50 centimetres beneath the surface of the basement floor and covered with a tile.
But inside the jar were quite literally, as the regional newspaper Midi Libre describes, "34 pieces of gold"
The couple didn't know it at the time but their find was worth an estimated €100,000 and included coins dating from 1595 until the French Revolution.
They took them along to Marc Aigouy, a local numismatist (the fancy word for a coin collector) who gave his expert opinion and estimated their worth to be €1,000 for the least valuable to €6,500 for a coin dating to 1640 during the reign of Louis XIII.
He excitedly told Agence France Presse how amazing the discovery had been.
"Most of the pieces were already pretty rare at the time they must have been buried," he said.
"I offered to buy the coins myself or to help the couple offer them up for auction, because we can easily expect them to fetch perhaps more than €100,000 especially if American or Japanese collectors are interested in them," he added.
"I'm waiting for the couple to get back to me to tell me what they want to do."
According to Aigouy the couple, who wish to remain anonymous, will pocket the whole auction price as the coins were found on their property.
If they had been found on public land then they would have had to share the value 50:50 with the state.
Time to start digging around in the cellar - or failing that perhaps choosing a few numbers for Friday's EuroMillions draw.
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