When Mr. Michel Éprinchard inherited a large empty field in Western France, he didn’t think much of it.
Overgrown with weeds and childhood memories of walks along the tree line, for a long time neither he nor anyone else in his family had any interest in developing it.
That all changed with a change of his heart, when he had the idea to donate the entire land parcel to the town of his childhood—provided the mayor and council promised to turn it into a fruit orchard and community garden that the whole town could benefit from.
Mr. Éprinchard warned the municipality of Clussais-la-Pommeraie, population 560, that should it choose to accept their land donation, it would come with a cost of developing the garden/orchard project, which the man estimated would require the equivalent of $12,000.
Mayor Étienne Fouché accepted the project, and work began last year.
“The first condition is to create a garden with specific varieties of fruit trees, and the second condition, undoubtedly the most important, is that the entire community can benefit from it, shared among all”, Éprinchard explained to the French media outlet Franceinfo, via translation.
“There are apple trees, pear trees, and plum trees,” Mr. Fouché explained. “Now we will let them grow, we will monitor the diseases, we will take care of the soil, and then people will come to pick their own apples or make jam.”
Many in the community came out to assist in planting the first 50 trees for the orchard. This year, another 50 will be planted, as well as a new hedge, flower beds, and flowering trees.
It will take about four years before the first harvests. But no one seems impatient. The project already fulfills its function: to gather, excite, and return the land to a common use.
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The story is reminiscent of a man who passed away and left it some ten million euros in his will to a tiny town he had never visited.
Roger Thiberville was born in Mantes-la-Jolie, located in a wine-growing region 50 kilometers west of Paris. The inheritance of his parents was originally intended for his sister, who died without heirs, meaning it passed to him.
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When he too died without an heir, a tiny Normandy town also called Thiberville learned he had left his fortune as an endowment for their use. Thiberville the man had never been to Thiberville the town, but requested that his ashes be buried with a plaque in the town’s cemetery.
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