Anyone thinking of moving to the French countryside who objects to being woken by crowing cockerels, mooing cows, the sound of tractors or the smell of manure will be sent packing from the courts from now on.
The French parliament has adopted a law in an effort to put an end to hundreds of noise complaint cases brought by disgruntled neighbours every year, mostly new arrivals from towns seeking rural peace and quiet.
“Those who move to the countryside cannot demand that country people who feed them change their way of life,” the justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, said last year when the law was introduced to parliament.
When tackled about the issue at the annual agriculture salon in March, he added it was “surreal that courts are being clogged up … with disputes about cows mooing at night. What should be done? Sedate them? If you don’t like the countryside, you stay in the city, and if you go to the countryside you adapt to the countryside as it is already.”
From now, people who decide to live near, next to or above an existing farm, shop, bar or restaurant cannot complain about the noise or other inconveniences.
Congratulating MPs on voting the legislation through on Monday, Dupond-Moretti added it would define the “outline of the celebrated art of vivre-ensemble [living together] that respects everyone”.
“I’m thinking, for example, of the pizzeria on the corner of the street that, certainly, produces smells and noise but was there before you moved in on the first floor,” Dupond-Moretti told MPs.
Nicole Le Peih, an MP for the governing centrist Renaissance party, who was behind the law, added: “It’s not a blank cheque for all neighbourhood disturbances but a common sense measure.”
Animal noise is a regular cause of rustic rows in France and often viewed as symbolic of the clash between those living in rural areas who have long kept animals or rung church bells, and privileged incomers from urban areas of France or abroad who have moved to or bought second homes in the countryside.
French judges have seen a number of complainants troop through their courts, including neighbours annoyed by Maurice the noisy rooster, who survived a legal attempt to silence him in 2019. Ducks, geese, cows and even cicadas have faced attempts to shut them up. In May last year, gendarmes turned up at the home of 92-year-old Colette Ferry to remove three frogs from her garden pond after complaints by neighbours.
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In Le Beausset in the Var, Provence, a mayor refused to kill the local cicadas after tourists complained they were too loud.
France passed a “sensory heritage” law three years ago, but the complaints continued, prompting further legislation.
Not everyone was in tune with the new legislation, however. The Socialist MP Gérard Leseul dismissed what he called a “verbose law … that does nothing more than introduce principles that are already established and applied”.
