{"id":3325,"date":"2025-11-19T10:50:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T09:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/institutdetouraine.com\/true-story-40-years-later-he-found-his-papers\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T10:50:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:50:44","slug":"true-story-40-years-later-he-found-his-papers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/institutdetouraine.com\/en\/true-story-40-years-later-he-found-his-papers\/","title":{"rendered":"True story: 40 years later, he found his papers!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In 1986, Thomas arrived at Institut de Touraine from Eritrea to <strong>learn French<\/strong>. During his training, his papers and money are stolen&#8230; and he never sees them again. <\/p>\n\n<p>Nearly forty years later, these documents were found by chance in some pipes and brought back to the Institute. After several searches, we find Thomas, still in the area. <\/p>\n\n<p>He became a stonemason, and used his talent to build Cologne Cathedral and castles in Russia. Invited to return to Tours with his partner and daughter, he rediscovered his Institute with great emotion. <\/p>\n\n<p>It was a moment full of memories, smiles and gratitude, and a reminder of how Institut de Touraine remains a <strong>home away from home<\/strong> for those who have learned much more than a language here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>40 years after his time at the Institut, Thomas finds his papers and returns to the place where he learned French.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-categorise"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>True story: 40 years later, he found his papers! - Institut de Touraine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"40 years after his time at Institut de Touraine, Thomas finds his papers and returns to the place where he learned French.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/institutdetouraine.com\/en\/true-story-40-years-later-he-found-his-papers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"True story: 40 years later, he found his papers! - Institut de Touraine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"40 years after his time at Institut de Touraine, Thomas finds his papers and returns to the place where he learned French.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/institutdetouraine.com\/en\/true-story-40-years-later-he-found-his-papers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Institut de Touraine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/institutdetouraine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-19T09:50:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-08T09:50:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/institutdetouraine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/histoire-thomas-etudiant-institut-touraine.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeanne ROBIN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeanne ROBIN\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/institutdetouraine.com\/en\/true-story-40-years-later-he-found-his-papers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/institutdetouraine.com\/en\/true-story-40-years-later-he-found-his-papers\/\",\"name\":\"True story: 40 years later, he found his papers! 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