Noisy cockerel exposes tensions in rural France

A French court is set to rule this week on whether an early-rising cockerel should be considered a neighborly nuisance in a case that has led to crows of protest in the countryside.

A woman from the picturesque island of Oleron off France’s western coast has been summoned to court on Thursday after a legal complaint by her neighbors who are troubled by the early crowing of her rooster during their holidays. The case has attracted attention because the cockerel is an emblem of France, while the plaintiffs have been portrayed as pushy urbanites who keep their property in Saint-Pierred’Oleron as a second home.

“They come twice a year to the island,” the owner of the cockerel, Corinne Fesseau, told the local France 3 channel. “I’ve been here for 35 years.” Such tensions are nothing new in France, where thousands of wealthy families own second homes in the countryside, but the case has become a cause celebre that reflects fears that the traditional rural way of life is under threat. “Today it’s the cockerel, but what will it be tomorrow? Seagulls? The noise of the wind? Our accents?”

Christophe Sueur, the mayor of SaintPierre-d’Oleron, said. Many rural areas are in decline in France, hit by a crisis in the farming sector and shrinking populations as young people leave to pursue their education and careers in the cities. The growing gap between rural and urban France has been highlighted during seven months of anti-government “yellow vest” protests which began last November.

Fesseau, who is set to appear in court in the town of Rochefort on Thursday, had threatened to bring her cockerel, which is called Maurice, to the hearing with her.