VIDEO – A bet that goes back a century: the strange discovery of a couple from the Hérault in their attic

When Elisabeth Gault arrived in her attic to collect her Christmas garlands, the light of her lamp revealed to her a map from another time. “My husband gave me a big projector and while scanning, I saw a notebook and next to it, this card. I started to read and I was very surprised to see the contents of this message”, shows this resident of Bassan, near Béziers, in the TF1 report at the top of this article.

These few lines were written by two teenagers in January 1917. It is a surprising bet, concluded in the middle of the First World War. “It is a bet which was made by two people, who bet when the war would end in 1917. There was also a sum of 20 francs. This statement is verified”, continues Elisabeth.

Very quickly, surprise becomes an obsession. To find the heirs of these teenagers, an advertisement was posted in the local press and met with unexpected success. “People have come forward. The descendants of both families have come forward.”, testifies Patrick Gault, Elisabeth’s husband.

The grandchildren of one of the punters live a few kilometers from the Gault family. They were eager to discover this forgotten treasure. In the living room, memories of the grandfather who raised them resurface. He was a discreet ancestor in his youth. “He didn’t talk too much about his childhood. We started to talk about peace, maybe at that time”, says Corinne Calmette, the granddaughter of one of the punters.

“He resurfaces in a way that fits the character well. He was not just a gamer, but he was already a boy, at fourteen, who had character and who was interested in important things”, adds a grandson, Philippe Chabert. History does not say whether this lost bet was paid.