If you take a trip to the country, there are some things you need to expect. There will be limited phone reception, interesting sights and smells, and most definitely sounds your city slicker ears aren’t used to.
However, for some people, it’s apparently just too darn hard to adjust.
According to The New York Times, vacationing neighbours of Saint-Pierre d’Oléron local Corinne Fesseau have asked a judge to remove her rooster, Maurice, claiming it “makes too much noise and wakes them up.”
Despite thousands signing a petition to let Maurice crow until the cows come home, ‘noise complaints’ in rural France continue to be a real issue.
Regis Bourelly, the mayor of another small village in Southern France, has even posted a sign warning tourists that during their visit, they will be exposed to “regular church bell ringings, roosters singing very early and farmers working hard to feed you.”
The situation has escalated to the point that French MP Pierre Morel-A-L’Huissier has drafted a new law which aims to “protect countryside noises and smells,” by recognising them as France’s “rural heritage,” according to SBS.
“If we let complaints be filed based on denying the reality of a territory, we are going to damage all of the French countryside,” he said.
“We already have protection for buildings that are heritage-listed. I believe we should protect noises and smells that are typical to the French countryside, by making them part of our rural heritage.”
As for Maurice the rooster, his official lawyer says he has “perceived this disquiet,” and “as for the past several months he has only rarely sung.”
Clearly, the whole argument is completely ludicrous and if visiting tourists don’t want to hear Maurice sing, they can stay in the city and listen to the traffic jams instead.