A Frenchwoman (69) calmly walked into a bank carrying a bag stuffed with 1.8 million francs (€274,000) and asked for it to be changed into euros.
The pensioner told employees at the bank in the northern town of Amiens she had kept the money - enough to buy an apartment in Paris or a large country house in many parts of France - in a box at home.
"She came with that amount of money in cash, and she left with it in cash," a local Bank of France employee told France Inforadio.
When she arrived at the bank her bag was stuffed with 500 franc notes.
The French Banking Federation estimates two-thirds of the notes were out of circulation before the January 1st introduction of euro cash - stuffed under mattresses or in boxes in homes across the country.