UK couple scoop EuroMillions jackpot but where's September's French winner?

A British couple were the winners of last Friday's Euromillions draw picking up a cool £101 million or €115 million.

(screenshot from EuroMillions commercial)

But in France there's still a mystery surrounding an even bigger jackpot "won" almost a month ago.

That's because nobody has stepped forward to make a claim for the €162 million for five correct numbers plus the two lucky stars in the September 13 draw.

The operator of the lottery in France, La Française des Jeux (FDJ), apparently has still had no news from the claimant and will only issue a statement once the winner has stepped forward and then "only in accordance with his or her wishes."

The winning ticket was apparently bought in the northwestern département of Calvados.

Yes the very same area known for its apple brandy, which might give a clue as to why nobody has yet made a claim.

And let's face it, the amount is hardly inconsiderable.

Should the winner eventually be identified he/she or they would have the 250th largest fortune in France.

But hey, who's counting centimes here?

It's not the first time someone has been in less than a hurry to pick up an enormous lottery cheque in France.

As Le Parisien reports, right now FDJ is waiting for the winner of €8 million in the national lottery draw from August 13 to make his or her claim.

Time is running out though as FDJ has rules about how long a jackpot can remain unclaimed and the deadline is October 12 at one minute to midnight.

As for the Euromillions winner from Calvados - well the deadline for making a claim is November 12.

EuroMillions ticket - sadly not a winner

Just for the record, those numbers for the September 13 draw in case you haven't already checked were - and still are - 9, 28, 30, 32, 49 and the two lucky stars 9 and 10 (you can check them out here)

EuroMillions is a transnational lottery incorporating national operators in nine European countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

French lottery winner strikes lucky - twice

Some people have all the luck.

A man from the southern French city of Montpellier has won the country's national lottery for the second time.

(screenshot from Loto commercial)

Back in 1996 he scooped the equivalent of €2.8 million (18,9 million French francs at the time) when his numbers came up.

And on Wednesday he pocketed a cheque of €3 million according to the La Française des Jeux (FDJ) the organiser of the France's national lottery, Loto.

What makes the win even more remarkable is that the 50-something has always played exactly the same numbers ever since the lottery was introduced in 1976.

"I chose the numbers randomly and wrote them down," he told the regional daily Midi Libre.

"Clearly I was born under a lucky star."

FDJ reckons the chances of one player winning twice with the same six numbers are one in 363 billion.

Lucky man!

But his double win comes at a price.

To begin with he has chosen to remain anonymous this time around as he had too many requests for money after he revealed his identity following the 1996-win.

And even though he maintains that he invested his previous winnings wisely, he also managed to spend around €1,000 on tickets before landing the jackpot for a second time.

Still it obviously paid off and winning twice isn't going to stop him from playing because, as he admits, he's addicted to the game.

Oh yes - and he doesn't want to rule out the possibility of winning for a third time.

French couple find coins worth €100,000 in basement

Friday's European lottery EuroMillions promises a first prize of €185 million to anyone lucky enough to have the winning numbers.

Portrait of Louis XIII by Philippe de Champaigne (1602-74) - from Wikipedia

But 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.

French lorry driver wins lottery, saves company and employs his former boss

What would you do if you won the lottery? Buy a house? A new car? A boat?

Splash out on a dream holiday perhaps? Or squirrel the money away and continue life as usual?

Or would you have a good, long think about things and after you had finished "shopping", buy the company you worked for?

That's what one former lorry driver in his fifties from northwestern France did after he hit the jackpot.

Screenshot from La Française des Jeux commercial

"Alexandre", the man who prefers to "guard his anonymity" as the national daily Aujourd'hui en France - Le Parisien puts it, won €10 million in the French Loto last September.

When the road haulage company for which he worked was threatened with liquidation, he stepped in and bought it, becoming the new CEO and therefore the boss of his former boss.

Into the bargain he also saved the jobs of more than a dozen employees.

"I had the means to invest and save jobs, and it's a world I know well. In fact it has been my life," he said

"That's not something you can give up from one day to another."

His decision was not a rash one based on sentimentality.

He only took over the assets of the company as well as a portfolio of clients and a dozen lorries, and not the liabilities or debts.

"If I see we're losing too much money, then I'll quit," he warns.

But for now he wants to "develop business and create more jobs."

As well as an apparent "nose for business" he also threw in a little retail therapy for good measure, buying a couple of houses and a 4X4.

That was the extent of his spending spree though, as he has also taken on an investment advisor and continues to play the Loto "just in case".

La Française des Jeux, the operator of the Loto, told Agence France Presse that as far as it knew this was the first time a winner had bought the company for which he or she had previously worked.

Alexandre was one of two men from the same part of France who had separate wins in two different lotteries last September.

The other man, also in his fifties and a lorry driver, picked up €15 million in the pan-European lottery EuroMillions.

Once a lorry driver, always a lorry driver - albeit a wealthy one.

French lottery winner shares 10 million euros jackpot with friends

The New Year got off to a rather special start for two couples in their 60s from just outside the southern French city of Arles as they picked up €10 million between them in the lottery.

image - screenshot from TF1 report

Except the win wasn't quite as straightforward as is it might initially appear.

Because in fact only one man held the winning ticket, but he decided to share the jackpot with his wife and the other couple because he was - well to put in quite simply - a man of principle.

As the regional daily, La Provence explained when it first reported the story, the two couples, who had known each other for more than two decades, had been regularly playing the lottery for the past three years.

They tried their luck at Christmas, says the paper, choosing the numbers together and handing over the €10 at the local tobacconists.

The draw was made and they won - absolutely nothing.

A week later though Jean-Pierre who, as the French media has reported, prefers to stay out of the limelight, entered the lottery again, only this time without telling either his wife or his friends.

He chose exactly the same numbers as the previous week, paid the €10 and...yes you've guessed it...the numbers came up.

And he was €10 million the richer.

Now this is the point where most of us would probably in theory wish to be magnanimous.

But as the recent example of Jeanette French in the United States proved that isn't always the case.

She was the 72-year-old woman from Florida who had been a member of a syndicate playing the State Lottery for the past eight years.

When the syndicate scooped the $16m jackpot the other seven members refused to split the winnings with French, because as ABC News Radio reported, she hadn't put her dollar in the collective pot.

The case soon became one for the lawyers.

Not so with Jean-Pierre though.

He immediately told his wife Eve - all right it would have been difficult to have kept it from her probably - and the other couple, Jean-Paul and Sophie.

Not only that, he has also split the winnings four ways and never considered keeping the money for himself.

"It's normal that we should share the money as we've known each other for 22 years," he told France Info radio.

"I went to see them and asked them to give me the usual €5 they contributed every week, and when they did, I told them we had all won €10 million."