A young French couple that were having a super holiday in Malta wrote a message, put it in a bottle and threw it in the sea on 20 July before they left the island.

Luckily for them, a Sicilian fisherman discovered the message a few days later. He also happened to know a director of the Intercontinental Hotel, where the couple had stayed while following an English language course, and got in touch through Facebook.

The message reads: “Hi, Hello, Good Morning, Good afternoon, Good evening, whatever...

“We are a couple from France on holidays in Malta and we decide to throw this bottle in the sea for that someone to find it! We hope that you really enjoy the life on your holidays (if you are on holidays) because for us this is our best holiday ever!

“Live the life like ‘Carpe Diem’. You have to live your life like if every day it will be your last day of your life”.

The couple gave their names, Manon and Frédéric, saying they came from the north east of France and added:

“If you find this bottle, please, try to find us! If we are dead, never mind, life goes on! Life must go on! Thank you”.

The couple had hoped the bottle would not sink but never imagined their holiday would have had an even happier ending.

To thank the young couple for their sincerity and originality of approach, the hotel invited them to come and spend their vacation in Malta, next year.

Speaking to The Malta Independent on Sunday, Christopher Gingell Littlejohn, Director of Sales & Marketing at Intercontinental Malta said: “It was all a fantastic coincidence. A friend happened to find the message written on a sheet of paper with the hotel’s letterhead; we tracked down the couple and got in touch with them. The story was quite popular on Facebook and was published by the French press so we decided to offer them a holiday next year as an acknowledgement for the publicity.”