He Collects 100 Fighter Aircraft!

Michel Pont built the collection up over four decades.

The sleek, dark-gray lines of a F-16 Fighting Falcon jet, flanked by two other veterans of the Cold War skies, a French Dassault Mirage IV and a F-104 Starfighter, is not what you would usually expect to come across when walking into the courtyard of a 700-year-old French château.

The conspicuous presence of this triad of combat aircraft in such an unlikely setting offers a foretaste of what this historical manor has in store for its guests.

Château de Savigny-lès-Beaune, in the little Burgundy village of the same name, dates back to the 14th century and would be just one more of the many wine-growing estates that dot this historical region of France was it not for the personal passions and initiative of one man, Michel Pont.

A winegrower, car racer and avid collector, Pont bought the château in 1979 and over the following four decades, until his passing in 2021, turned it into a treasure trove for all those interested in mechanics and engineering. (CNN)

I guess that’s how he chose to spend his fortune!

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