Anyone considering moving to the French countryside who objects to being woken up by crowing roosters, mooing cows, the sound of tractors and the smell of manure will now be sent packing by the courts. become.
France’s parliament has passed a law to put an end to hundreds of noise control court cases each year brought by disgruntled neighbors, most of them new arrivals from towns seeking peace and quiet in the countryside. .
When the law was first introduced in parliament last year, Justice Minister Eric Dupont Moretti said: “People who move to the countryside cannot demand that the rural people who support them change their way of life.” said.
When the issue was raised at the annual Agricultural Salon in March, he added: “It’s unbelievable that courts are crowded with disputes over nighttime cow noises.”
“What should we do? Do we pacify them? If we don’t like the countryside, we can stay in the city, and if we go to the countryside, we will adapt to the countryside that is already there.”
From now on, people who decide to live near, next to or above existing farms, shops, bars and restaurants will no longer be able to complain about noise or other inconveniences.
Dupont-Moretti congratulated the lawmakers who passed the bill on Monday, adding that the bill “will define the profile of famous art.” Vivre Ensemble [living together] It’s about respecting everyone. ”
“For example, I’m thinking of a pizzeria on a street corner that certainly has smells and noise, but it was there before you moved in on the ground floor,” Dupont-Moretti said. told the members of parliament.
Nicole Le Pay, a member of the ruling centrist Renaissance party who is behind the law, added: “This is not a blank check on all the unrest in our neighbourhoods, it is a common sense measure.”
Animal noises are a regular cause of rural commotion in France, with people living in the countryside who have long kept animals and ringing church bells, and the privileged classes who have immigrated from France’s urban areas and abroad. It is often seen as a symbol of the conflict between income earners. I bought a second house in the countryside.
French judges have seen scores of complainants flood their courts, including neighbors irritated by Maurice, a noisy rooster who survived an attempt to legally silence him in 2019. There is. Ducks, geese, cows and even cicadas face attempts to silence them. In May last year, military police showed up at 92-year-old Colette Ferry’s home after complaints from neighbors and removed three frogs from her garden pond.
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In Le Beauce, in the Var department in Provence, the mayor has refused to exterminate local cicadas. After the tourist lodges a complaint they were too loud.
France passed a “sensory heritage” law three years ago, but a flurry of complaints prompted further legislation.
However, not everyone agreed with the new law. Socialist lawmaker Gerard Rousseur rejected what he called a “redundant law…that merely introduces principles that are already established and applied.”
