PARIS (AFP) - A Frenchman came within three weeks of allowing a 73 million euro (S$113 million) lottery win to evaporate after carrying the winning ticket around in his wallet for a month, the lottery company said on Wednesday.

The man from north-eastern France, an online subscriber to Euromillions, hit the jackpot on Dec 2, but he had stopped routinely checking his numbers.

Winners have two months to present their tickets.

"It's a story with a happy ending," the man told Francaise des Jeux, who run the lottery in France. "To think that for more than a month I didn't realise I was carrying around a lottery ticket worth 73 million euros in my wallet every day!"

When he finally showed up at a lottery outlet, he was told: "We've been waiting for you."