There is nothing more cheerful than a rooster's crowing to meet the dawn. It's reassuring and comforting even in the middle of the night, and it's the sound that my ancestors woke to for thousands of years. I wish some of my neighbors had roosters.
29
I moved to rural France for my retirement this last February fulfilling a lifelong dream. I chose rural vs. urban based on several past experiences. My village has a historic 14th century church whose bells ring every quarter hour. Despite the fact that there is no longer a seminary with monks in residence, these bells also still call their ghosts to prayer three times a day. I could find it annoying, I suppose, but I’d rather take the perspective that I am observing and sharing an illustrious history. It is part of the charm. I also find that when busy with other things, I simply tune them out. I’m with Maurice!
29
The cranky people could always go to jail for a good night's sleep. Just like Vinny did in My Cousin Vinny. Worked for him.
9
How about pigeons in Paris?
Every morning at 6 AM starting from mid spring to mid summer, I am awoken by the cooing of male pigeons who decide that my window ledge is the perfect nesting place to attract their future wife.
It's a Class 3 infraction to feed pigeons in Paris. No law against poisoning flying rats.
8
May one use the target on your pate, and score a bull’s-eye!
13
In Jerusalem during the same time period I am awakened at 6 AM by the birds perching,cooing,singing and cawing in the trees in our front yard. It's an opportunity to rise early and enjoy the morning. I never need to set the alarm clock. And when I want to sleep later, I use earplugs
16
It is interesting how the author of this article chose to describe the chronology of the events outlined, and perhaps it reveals some journalistic bias. Until the final third of the article, a reader might infer that the rooster (or perhaps his forebears) preceded the complainants as residents in the village. But then we read that the couple, “built their house some 15 years ago and had enjoyed peaceful vacations until Ms. Fesseau installed her chicken coop in 2017”. Aha! The plot thickens. That detail is arguably the salient point and the bone of contention. Details matter, nuance matters. This example of pastoral heritage versus urban elite interlopers is a tidy metaphor and makes an enjoyable read, and the overarching idea (and ideal) is clearly valid. Still, you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs, but you don’t need a rooster to produce them.
10
Long live Maurice and rural French tradition! I live in a French village, with roosters and church bells that ring every hour on the hour, day and night. I love it. You get used to it. It's just that city folk like the Birons and Andrieux don't stick around long enough to acclimate. It would be cheaper and friendlier for them to use earplugs rather than rile all of France. I mean, after all, the rooster is a symbol of the country!
26
We recently moved to southern France and a small town in the middle of an agricultural area—kinda like Saint-Pierre-d’Oléron without the summer-time crowds. It’s reasonably quiet except for the occasional (and very loud) motorcycles that pass through now and then. They seem to fall into two camps: kids on 2-cycle dirt bikes that never had decent mufflers in the first place, and Harley-Davidson riders—yes, lots of them here, too—who think it’s perfectly appropriate to remove the factory mufflers and install straight pipes that rattle the windows of the locals. If I could replace the motorcycles with roosters I’d do it in a heart beat. Other than that, life is idyllic here, though.
19
Here in the city in a garden (Urbs in Horto), it is completely legal to have chickens in a backyard chicken coop and run, provided it is large enough (3 square feet per bird in coop; 10 in run) and kept clean. Many people keep chickens (including roosters). Many also keep bees. Sweet Home Chicago.
11
there are trials for bells, chickens, bothering sounds everytime between urban and rural people everytime. that is not an identity or a value problem. that is a way of life problem. being less wordy is a good thing and the couple from Limoges are wrong.
5
In the wrong setting, roosters are a nuisance. I live in a suburban village with houses typically a few dozen feet from each other. A few years ago my neighbor built a chicken coop in his detached garage, not more than 20 feet from my bedroom. Chickens are fine. But when he added a rooster getting a night's rest became a problem. My alarm is generally set between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. If the rooster crowed to meet the dawn it would be no big deal. But I quickly found out roosters crow whenever they please, often in the middle of the night. My neighbor is a good person and tried to muffle the noise when asked. But those birds are LOUD, and nothing really worked. To his credit, I only had to knock on my neighbor's door once at 4:30 a.m. during a sleep inhibited night for him to realize the rooster was inappropriate for a residential area. His answer - rooster stew. Quite tasty, according to my neighbor.
13
What will be next? Will vacationers to rural parts of France, such as the Pyrenees or Alps, complain about cows and sheep that wear bells? Or the farmers who at times herd the animals through the local streets when changing pastures? Animals are not mindful of whether they are on a road or pasture if nature calls. Do these vacationers really want to spoil what makes rural France so delightful and worth visiting?
14
I like roosters, birds etc. But in the Philippines the incessant barking of hundreds of dogs all night long can drive you crazy. Each dog trying to outbark his neighbors.
.
7
Well..they could vacation in Rome and contend with church bells 3x/day for Catholic prayers! These vacationers are "guests" and they are being petty and mean. They should vacation somewhere else.
8
Earplugs :They work great and I have a large dog next door who barks intermittently all night. Same goes for loud teenagers.
15
As one who grew up on my grandmother’s milk farm...one grows accustomed to these sounds...much like a New Yorker to their sirens at all hours of the night.
16
When people move into an area, they need to accept the way of life in that area. If chickens have traditionally been allowed and are legal, then Maurice stays — and it matters not that Maurice arrived after the summering couple purchased their house.
20
I notice that as few chickens as Ms. Fesseau owns, she doesn't seem to appreciate their eggs (nor share them) given the number under hier & aujourd'hui.
2
"Some people call him Maurice". When he crows he is simply speaking "of the pompitous of love". He is just"Playing his music in the sun"...And he "Sure don't want to hurt no one"
Couldn't resist :).
Moderators you may be too young to get it. Just let it through. Swear it is PC !
29
Years ago, we lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, as it was just beginning to gentrify. Somebody had a rooster, but the jukebox in the bar downstairs was a much bigger problem.
12
I'd wager that 99% of the sentimental respondents here don't live within 50 miles of a loud, angry abusive rooster.
8
Abusive?
15
I lived across the street from such a rooster- in Tel Aviv,no less. A quiet neighborhood with few cars but neighbors with roosters in their yard. I never thought of sueing them. My solution-earplugs.
8
I keep chickens, so I am obviously on Maurice’s side! An interesting thing happened one summer when our bantie rooster-at-large was killed by a hawk. In the interval of time I was able to procure our next rooster, one of my hens started to crow! She continued to help our next rooster with his crowing until the day she died. The perception that hens are quieter than roosters is a myth.
21
But a hen crowing is not the norm. Some hens do make loud sounds occasionally when upset or feeling threatened. On another interesting note, if a bird’s one functional ovary stops working, the other gonad can start producing male hormones, and she can develop some male characteristics — this happened to one of our hens: she developed a larger comb and spurs but absolutely none of the aggressive or crowing habits typical of roosters.
7
If you want to know more details about the hen developing male characteristics, search for “ovotestis” on the web.
2
My grandmother was superstitious that a crowing hen as a omen of doom.
Any hen that comported herself as the rooster of the chicken pen was dinner...thus the bad omen was fulfilled.
10
It's a community issue and France is democratic, so vote on it. If the majority of the community want to allow roosters and barking dogs, then people who complain will have to adjust. But keep the courts out of it.
5
I live in Rome, GA, a small town north of Atlanta and when I first arrived there were lots of very secure cages on my acre of property. The previous owner had trained falcons and I populated them with chickens (and roosters). I had a lot of fun and really great eggs. Then this little rural town decided it was too sophisticated to tolerate "farm animals" in the city limits. There was much to do about the chickens for six months with the end result being that you can't have any. My girls moved to a farm, the roosters had long ago made a good soup for an Asian family. Roosters don't play well with each other.
2
It's interesting that so many commenters assume the plaintiffs are rich. I'm seeing them referred to as "wealthy", "entitled", all the usual clichés.
But look at the photo of the "mini-development" where they live. It's pretty obviously NOT a place where the wealthy would choose!
3
When I lived in a suburb in Hawaii I put my rooster to bed in a box with a heavy cover. He never crowed until I woke him at about 8:30. Chickens seem much happier with a rooster as he protects them, finds food and keeps them warm
Now I live in South West France in a small town of 1,000 in the country. We have a rooster as do others nearby. We have sheep, goats & geese in a refuge garden with birds, frogs and bats. No one would think of complaining, this is what makes the country such a wonderful spot to be.
21
What I really want to know: Does Maurice speak of the pompatus of love? Is he a Space Cowboy? Is he a Gangster of Love? These are the important questions we need to know...
33
I’m sure the pompitous in France is even better than here.
8
Ha! I see how it’s annoyingly if you aren’t used to it, and you won’t be used to it if you only come a few weeks in the year!
I moved to the German countryside after living for the last decades in cities. One of our neighbors got a rooster who was really bad — he crowed between 2:30-4am, every night, from 30 mins to an hour. Even in winter! Woke me up every night. Did we complain? No, it’s the countryside, and people can do what they want.
Thankfully, they got a new rooster who crows at the normal time (which in summer here is also around 4am) — I don’t hear it anymore at all. You get used to anything. Not sure why people want a change of pace and then try to make it fit into some fake picture they conjured up in their head. Do they know that manure is real too? And, it doesn’t smell like roses.
20
What I wondered about is why those o/t tourists don’t arrive w ear plugs?!?! Surely in a town far away from the city of Paree the silence of dawn will be punctured by its natural inhabitants... even here, in NYC ( I live a short walk from Washington Square Park), I sometimes hear a dawn concerto by local birds chirping away for a good 20 Minutes. I smile at their far too early concert and have managed to return to my sleep until my official morning begins... If u wake up at 4:00 am, especially on winters ‘nites’ in the biggest city it is literally still as a sleeping rooster. Or, WHATEVER they do do out there in in the French countryside:)) ( I love the way the writer has detailed the significant details of the story... made my day. The fotos as well! I hope to visit the place, it sounds charming and rich just the way u would expect it to be in France...
3
"France's still unbroken connection to its agricultural past" is intimately tied to its food culture. One great French recipe that I can recommend is "coq au vin" (rooster cooked in red wine).
Perhaps someone could give Maurice some friendly advice: if you don't shut up there is a culinary solution to the problem you are causing...
5
Just another example of too many people. I'd take a rooster crowing at 6 am over gunfire at 11 pm any day. If the "visitors" prefer the city noise of Limoges, perhaps they should stay there.
18
There is a rooster that has taken up residence in the streets of the Irish Channel/LGD of New Orleans. Neighborhood residents (including NY transplants) grumble about the 6am alarm clock, but collectively and good-naturedly watch out for it. They feel lucky having that little beacon of nature in their urban neighborhood.
10
“A minority wants to impose their way of life.”
This also describes the Republican party and their evangelist followers but I digress...
Maurice is one quintessential characteristic of Saint-Pierre d’Oléron. Best of luck to the Fesseaus and their supporting neighbors.
11
Lying in bed on a lazy Sunday, I played the sound of Maurice's textbook crow and looked to the right to see my mid-nap cat, Sylvie, unmoved with the exception of two half-parted eyelids. She returned to said nap immediately. In the interests of fairness, I should point out that she is French, so may have found his crow familiar.
15
Two years ago, my husband and I moved to a very small town and can hear trains going through at all hours not far from our home. At first I wondered if the sound would bother me. But instead I came to enjoy the whistles (I note the code) and the rumble. Somehow they make me feel like "all's right with the world" (Browning). I find myself, even in the middle of the night, smiling. I am grateful for all the living and mechanical reminders that something is right in the world, if only I pay attention.
14
I live in Seattle in a very small home set back from a busy street that is used nearly every night (and often even during the day) by young men ( I see them) speeding down the hill at dangerously high speeds, generating never ending (wake up/NOTICE ME!!!) noises from their beloved internal combustion engines. And at 5:30 every morning, I also get to hear a large work truck parked in the alley behind our house firing up another wake up internal generator roar that carries all over the block.I would much prefer more natural sounds that are not so blatantly mechanical and aggressive. Also,in the past, right to my south, I had to put up with an illegal Big Dog boarding business that generated non stop aggressive barking night and day from up to 8 Big Dogs. This is different from poor Maurice's infrequent morning solo singing... and I support the people on this island who think in very much the same way. If visitors to the island want a sterile vacation destination, blessedly free from the sounds of nature, there are lots of other options. Try Rome. But to initiate a lawsuit because your neighbor has a rooster seems a bit off the meter to me. Their attitude sounds strangely clueless, entitled, anti-nature, anti-rural and completely out of touch with what they chose as a vacation destination. Now all these quaint country people should should cater to their demands.
13
People who could move or get second homes anywhere choose places that will only lose their character through overdevelopment. I have visited Kauai, a lovely island (also full of feral chickens). Should I move there, buy a house and help drive up prices and demand for housing, add my car to the island traffic, and complain about overcrowding and loud roosters?
Greed is the most corrosive sin we have. Selfishness is the main symptom and makes us blind to the greater scheme of things and how our wants must be balanced against everyone else’s. Money does not and should not change this ethical reality.
15
Viva Maurice! My sweet urban neighborhood has changed a lot in 45 years. Wealthy folks are purchasing $1M homes that began life as 2-bedroom bungalows and putting in perfect, but hot, astroturf lawns. People show movies on the sides of their garage all hours of the night and open their homes to strangers via airbnB. The area has been rezoned for chickens, goats, etc. because there are santeria worshipers in the area that raise the animals to sacrifice. Nearby businesses are craft breweries, tattoo parlours and pole dance schools. What to do? I'd love a rooster next door.
20
I find it hard to believe! I spent a summer in UCSD back in 1991, and considered living around that beautiful city w an amazing coastline, zoo, a short drive to Mexico even, from r shopping, and all kinds of nooks and hoods, but who knows as it touches a contentious borderline it obviously attracts all sorts of rumble raiders... the weather is fine, the ambiance obviously has deteriorated. Maybe someone should write a series about the place as it approximates OZARKS!?
I feel really bad for the couple from Limoges. They are truly suffering.
But their suffering is not caused by Maurice. It is caused by their sense of entitlement. I imagine them going to bed at night incredibly angry at the inevitability of something they can't control, and instead of sleepily smiling their way through his crows and then drifting back to their dreams, they are immediately jolted awake in a furious state of rage.
It all reminds me of people like Ralph Kramden, George Costanza, Basil Fawlty (the list is long), people who seem to need some serious counseling and guidance.
Might I suggest they read Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations" for starters...
33
Who was he???
2
I have not lived next to roosters but we have many striking clocks and live close to a train track. I find I have gotten use to their sounds and do not hear them anymore. For the clocks I notice them more when they need winding and no longer strike.
4
It’s a chicken in rural France for crying out loud. How it got crazy enough to end up in the NYT is enough to make me cry fowl.
19
Team Rooster here. Also Team Church Bells.
15
Apply US tort law principles: The visitors have "come to the nuisance" they perceive. They have no grounds on which to complain of pre-existing conditions. Vive Maurice!
6
How about we prioritize outlawing the auditory affronts of civilization first?
7
Part of the point of visiting a place is to experience its culture. Roosters waking you up is part of that. If you only want sun and a beach go somewhere else. If you actually care that you are in this place and this country then tolerate its roosters. Buy earplugs if you have to. You shouldn’t behave like a spoiled brat in someone else’s home no matter how rich or famous you are. For shame!
9
Simple solution for
vacationers everywhere: bouchons
d’oreilles (earplugs)!
12
@Mrs. McVey Good idea! and if they find them uncomfortable, how about a white noise generator?I had a friend who rented an apartment on a small farm where the rooster used to crow right outside her window. She ran her air conditioner fan and the crowing never bothered her after that since the two sounds apparently canceled each other out.
2
A rooster's crowing is a natural and immediate response to whatever causes it. This bird cannot stop crowing twice in the morning anymore than someone can stop yawning loudly or sneezing multiple times in a row.
That poor, defenseless bird should be left alone to live in peace and quiet with his handler, Ms. Fesseau.
What would these neighbors do if suddenly a pack of wolves moved into the area, howling at all hours of the night - call out France's version of the National Guard?
If these folks want "peace and and quiet" get better insulated windows in the bedroom which blocks out noise. Heck, I would even throw in a few bucks towards the windows if it meant Maurice would be left alone.
4
No one's mentioned the small fact hidden within the article that the "vacation couple" had actually built their home their 15 years ago, and that the rooster owner had just recently introduced the birds into the picture in 2017.
Although I tend to want to side with maurice the rooster, since the island seems so rural by its very nature, there is a known legal principle of moving to the nuisance, in this case, the pre-existing "nuisance" being the peaceful quiet enjoyed by the vacationing couple 15 years ago when they built their home. It seems like the rooster is a newly added factor in the last 2 years.
For me, the nuisance would be to come all the way to such a beautiful small island, and NOT hear the local sounds expected of years-gone-by. Seems like that is part of the charm you look for when you escape from the city on vacation to a simpler locale, at least to me.
35
@Betsy
All I can think of is zoning. Do the French have zoning?
We've had rooster problems in this country because Americans love to build McMansions out in the country like they're some landed gentry from the days of old. They do this in areas zoned for 'agriculture.' Then, they complain about sounds and smells. Duh.
If a couple chooses to build in an agricultural area then they are just out of luck if roosters are allowed and one shows up after a while. The onus would be on them to have zoning changes codified into law, not have roosters detained for doing what they do.
Besides, there are these foam things known as earplugs. They work.
37
Yes I did react to that section of the story. But then it’s important to weight the fact that the vacationers are only there a few weeks out of the year whereas the owner of the rooster lives there all the time. I would not make my decisions around part-timers.
55
@Betsy Your point would be stronger if, fifteen years ago, coops weren’t allowed and only within the last couple of years have residents been granted permission to build them. My guess is that in a rural area they were never prohibited, and once built, weren’t expected to have no roosters in residence.
15
i too live on a rural island just off the south west coast of BC with the same summertime double population explosion of urban vacationers. Our residential population of 10,000 supports itself mainly by local, sustainable, organic farming: free range sheep, goats, beef, chickens (& their rooster hubbies), wineries, veggies, eggs, world famous cheeses, coffee, organic, local bread making & a world famous local produce & art Saturday Market....
When the "summer people" arrive 'from away', they complain about the lack of "Fast Food" joints, the long line-ups at various tourism points of interest, the "full camping grounds" in our one provincial heritage Park, the over full ferry long lineups, the lack of parking space in the Village, the restrictions on oversized Campers. Never once do they think they may be the cause of the over crowding.
Free ranging eagles & their eaglets communicate loudly; ravens screech in raucous calls to each other throughout the day; Great Horned Owls call to each other from my home from 11 p.m. throughout the night.
If vacationers wish to travel in the "peace & solitude of nature", be prepared for the continual communal noises of nature.
My vote is for Maurice; long may he crow. Beats the urban noise pollution by a long cock a doodle doo.
ps If any urbanite wanted to cut a hedge because songbirds disturb him, he needs to have his head examined upside down & sideways!
16
@Perspective Well I completely agree with you. Just wanted to mention that some os us city folk don't act like the ones you mentioned.
What's interesting is that no one has opened a fast food joint to make money off the tourists. Do you have better zoning laws ion Canada? I've seen so many rural towns just ruined with tourist traps. Here in the US and also in Greece.
Those unhappy tourists in your neck of the woods could have found a spot with plenty of fast food and even parking if they'd done their research.
Of course then they'd complain that it's too touristy.
5
@Jack Toner Thanks for your reply. Our zoning laws are very strict. Not one golden arch or Burger King has been allowed one inch on our island. There is no additional parking because there is no room for it. We have strict Agricultural zoning laws to keep developers from stealing what land is available for actually growing crops, etc.
7
Yeah, we love the sound of an A/C compressor in the morning. Cock a Doodle buddy.
3
Live on a hill with 20 houses and lot of room. The Banti rooster lived outdoors with no owner for maybe 8 years. I missed the morning singing when he passed. Donkey braying might not be missed.
6
Loved the wit and style of this piece. A pleasure to read. Doesn't sound like the objectors to Maurice stand a chance in court. However, contrary to what the mayor says, this is not about "a minority" seeking "to impose their way of life," a somewhat troubling characterization, if you ask me. No, it is just about the folly of a self-centered couple with too much time and money on their hands. Who hasn't met such people in others guises and situations? Maurice the rooster is just the current excuse for them causing some trouble and upset. Some days people like this do not seem to be the minority at all. But fortunately they are. One wonders if they ever leave their development and venture out to see the actual place they vacation in. If the photos are anything to go by, it is beautiful.
3
I lived near Saint-Pierre d'Oleron for almost forty years. The town is practically shuttered ten months of the year. So Maurice has the place to himself.
Compare that to Antigua Guatamala where firecrackers go off every morning around 4 a.m., just for the fun of it, all year around. Even Maurice would move elsewhere....
8
Why is it that a rooster's crow is considered offensive, but it's OK to run a leaf blower for hours on end? How about outdoor target practice? Fireworks other than July? Give me a rooster any day!
15
If le coq loses, there will be a reprise of the yellow vests, but the color will be russet matching Maurice's plumage.
5
We have 6 hens, thought hens would be more suited to a residential area, boy was I wrong, these birds make the most obnoxious noise , often very early in the morning,
Like clockwork and often on Saturday and Sunday mornings believe it or not One will start then the other chimes in, within a minute all 6 are barking cawking . I have resorted to tossing a glass of water on them to stop them, or throwing some snacks out to distract them. I feel bad for my neighbors and throwing water on them doesn't make me feel good either actually
Isn't a rooster's cocock-a-doodle-doo more pleasant than hens sqawking, I wonder if we had a rooster, would the hens be more quiet ?
2
I see parallels to more rural areas of California invaded by the wealthy from the Bay Area or Los Angeles. They want the charm, the wine, etc., but they don't want to hear the sounds of nature, or put up with smells from growing crops. They want to bring in chain restaurants and stores they are used to where they previously lived.
4
@Jasmine Armstrong Not all of us! I avoid chain restaurants like the plague.
In our province, we have “right to farm” legislation, it’s purpose being to minimize conflicts at the “rural/urban interface”. If an “urbanite” elects to move into the interface (or if a “ruralite” opts to commence bona fide agricultural operations at the interface), the law will protect those operations and the ensuing noise, smell, dust, etc. generated by the exercise of “good farming practices” from law suits attempting to deter those operations. Sloppy farming is not protected.
The presence of a rooster is always a problematic issue in that a rooster is only a necessity for small, self-sustaining home flocks. Certainly, most egg and meat poultry operations do not include roosters in their flocks. So why this rooster? For protection of the flock, for ambiance, for French-ness ... who’s to say? This is less about agricultural need and the protection of rural life than it is about - je ne sais quoi - psychological needs and desires. Roosters - like peacocks and guinea fowl - can be as much a nuisance as an incessant barking dog or a car alarm. Very sadly, not an obvious “right” worthy of protection in a questionably rural location.
5
@JDLawyer It's France not Canada. Not based on "right to farm" legislation. Do you ever take time off from being a lawyer?
4
Ah, yes - the wealthy think that lawyering up, which they can easily afford, is the solution to any of life's inconveniences, missteps and even illegal acts.
The French equivalent of GoFundMe for Maurice's legal fees!
2
Just to be contrarian to the bulk of commentators: Did you notice that the summer people had been there for many years and the rooster was actually creating the problem. Big difference from them moving into a house which already had roosters for neighbors.
And I am happy to bash the rude, and particularly the wealthy rude, but it should be embarrassing to those who use someone's wealth as if they necessarily already have two strikes against them.
5
@Billy Evans Were roosters allowed in that area? Seems like the answer is yes. So this couple should be happy that their vacations were rooster-less for so many years.
Perhaps Ms. Fessau would have preferred it if the complex this couple is in had never been built. Did she have a say?
5
Very good points. I would certainly take those under consideration. You missed my point. My point was that almost everyone (maybe you too?) jump to the conclusion that the 'rich' are automatically wrong. Yes, it did look like they were in a complex of buildings which might have one lean in the direction that animals should be in a more rural section. But I could be wrong. Need all the facts. But woman hugging rooster is for us bleeding heart liberals. I'm just not sure I'm bleeding on this one. Hey, and for what it's worth, I'm a dirt poor very liberal artist. That's my tribe, but I'm not stuck inside of it.
2
the French can be proud. as proud as a rooster, as we say here.
France is by far the most attractive country in Europe for foreign industrial and R&D investment (EY FDI attractiveness surveys, 06/2019). and Greater Paris is the most attractive city in the world for foreign R&D investment (KPMG Global Cities Investment Monitor 2019, 06/2019).
France is the most balanced country (public/private investment, skills/R&D, entrepreneurship, housing, fertility, middle class/poverty/inequalities/cost of living, household finances, health/healthcare, defense, environment, heritage/culture, etc...). the last model standing (Newsweek, 01/2009).
Adam and/or Liz Alderman could write about this, no ? would be a bit more informative than this Oléron culture clash. I am wrong ?
1
Gotta laugh about Maurice, I have a Kauai perspective.
Ever since roosters on the gorgeous island were liberated by Hurricane Iniki in 1992, they have multiplied and spread everywhere. They have evolved to crow at all hours of the day and night.
One bird crowing in the early AM? Ha, temptest in a teapot.
Ear plugs and a white noise machine would have been cheaper and more neighborly.
6
You got that right!
1
When I was growing up in Ireland we had cousins from large cities in the US an UK who visited each summer. We convinced them that chocolate milk came from brown cows. They had great difficulty underrstanding why the skinny kids on the farm were not only stronger than them but also had greater endurance at physically demanding tasks.
4
Long live Maurice! And may he crow every morning.
When you go to the countryside for relaxation, accept that you are in a different setting and enjoy the experiences, including the rooster.
You can always buy a set of earplugs.
6
One is reminded that with Gallic humor, the symbol of Rossignol skis, named for an old fashioned French word for nightingale, was the rooster.
2
I ski on Rossi Pursuits. They're like Ferraris for your feet.
1
I spend part of the year in the colonial city of San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. It is a distinctly urban, not rural, place. My neighbours, who have lived there much longer than I, have a rooster. Its early morning rituals are indeed a noisy nuisance, but it never occurred to me to confront the neighbours about it. Instead, I sleep with silicone earplugs, which block noise very effectively. I imagine these are available in France.
9
Mexico is quite noisy, I’ve noticed on my trips there. Barking dogs, roosters and a lot of loud bangs and explosive sounds, sometimes fireworks and sometimes part of political rallies or as political statements, I believe.
1
I keep a fan near my bed to cover up early morning bird squawks and occasional traffic noise and I am never awakened. Tell those fools to get a cheap box fan. The breeze will keep them cool on warm nights too.
9
@Andrew Popper
Mr. Popper - apparently great minds think alike, on many levels!
2
“You see, he’s very stressed out,” said his owner, Corinne Fesseau. “I’m stressed, so he’s stressed out. He’s not even singing any more.” She picked up Maurice the rooster and hugged him. “He’s just a baby,” she said.
Poor sweet and adorable Maurice. No animal should feel stressed, especially so stressed that he is unable to sing. What an incredible bond Corinne Fesseau has with Maurice. The photo of her holding and hugging him is priceless.
My husband snores something fierce. It got so bad that I was unable to get any sleep (we only have one bedroom) and tried to stay awake at the desk in my office. It was a horrible struggle. And then on day I had an epiphany. I bought a medium size floor fan and plugged it in at night in our bedroom. The soothing and calming sound of the fan cancelled out the sounds of his snoring. I was able to get a restful and uninterrupted night's sleep ever since.
There are always options and compromises if one is willing to look and try to meet someone half way.
I was raised on a farm and know all too well the sounds of roosters in the morning. Frankly, I loved those sounds as I did all of our farm animals. They were my pals. I always thought roosters were saying "good morning" to the world.
These "few weeks a year" neighbors should count their blessings that Ms. Fesseau doesn't own cows for the sounds of their mooing is so dang loud, it could wake up an entire county. Things can always be worse.
6
Americans who visit France love to complain about the surly waiters, the unhelpful taxi drivers and public employees.
Many of these people speak better English than they let on, and when you try your limited French with them, they will scoff at your atrocious accent.
Some foreign tourists might even wonder whether the words "conciliation" and "empathy" are part of the vocabulary of many French people.
No doubt, Maurice the Rooster can sympathize.
Oh people. How divorced from nature must we be before you'll be happy?
My aunt was forced to decapitate her rooster because the neighbors complained. This was in a rural but gentrifying area.
It was horrible.
And for what?
Get a white noise machine already.
I live near the El and I'd love to have roosters instead.
2
No farms, no food.
2
Arrogant vacationers should not get to dictate to someone who lives there year round. I hope the rooster wins and the judge orders the upstarts to pay his owner’s legal fees.
7
Early morning noise: ear plugs. They work wonders.
2
This is symptomatic of mentally disturbed urban people : they live with an insufferable level of noise in their cities but will complain about nature when they get out of their town. Go figure...
7
If you're coming to vacation somewhere, it's up to you to either know what the area is like, or accept the situation if you haven't done your homework. The vacationers are out of line.
2
I lived as an expat in Waterloo, outside of Brussels, in a house that abutted a property that included a rooster. Sometimes it would crow at 4AM. I really wanted to strangle it, but understood its right to be there. What really irked me though, was it was illegal to use a lawnmower after 7PM or at all on Sat or Sun because of noise restrictions.
1
There will always be some "oh, my precious ears that are too fragile for earplugs!" people anywhere who smugly think that - just because they can afford the rent/mortgage/property tax on whatever rural/suburban/exurban single-family dwelling - they can suddenly demand that dogs, coyotes, roosters, etc. go on silent mode just for them!!!
Propose to the hyper-sensitive hearing plaintiffs to sell or exchange their rural vacation home for one that is in a pet-less, beachside/lakeside, active senior-friendly development.
Obviously there are many individuals or groups who still respect & value authentic rural living enough to buy that vacation home off their hands.
Year-round residents who pay rent/mortgage/property tax & physically maintain the neighborhoods (thus understanding the character of the community best) should be prioritized over the naive tantrums of seasonal residents, absentee landlords, and generally clueless new arrivals (ex. newly minted heirs, nouveau riche types, or subsidized by parents/sugar daddies or mommas/exes/etc. who rudely think money solves everything).
2
Is it true that a majority of city kids in US have not seen a cow or a chicken in real life? If so, it follows that if the natural life of animals is becoming an artificial one so is our connection with nature - artificial! More often an encumbrance than an intimate, healthy experience.
No wonder the environment is suffering and destruction of ecosystems has accelerated.
We must learn how to love nature and healthy farming - which the French seem to celebrate. Vive le Coq!
3
this sounds like the couple are out of touch with where they are. If you live in the city like Paris or NYC, do you complain if you hear cars going by your apt or condo at 6 AM? There's no ordinance to prevent people driving at any hr in a large city. If you choose to live by the sea-side you'll hear waves, and if you live in the country where people raise animals, you're going hear the sounds.
2
Sadly, these "locals vs. blow-ins" conflicts are happening everywhere.
I live near Ballinskelligs, Ireland - where a local family has bought a decrepit hotel and wants to renovate it and make it bigger. The area needs a hotel. It's actually in the most recent Irish tourism plan for the area. Pretty much every local is in favor of the hotel.
HOWEVER, a holiday home/vacation home owner who owns a house near by (not a full time residence) is against it; so too a person who lives about 30 miles away in Kenmare (we think - the address listed on their complaint doesn't actually exist). The County Planning Authority is saying NO to the hotel due to the two who have paid for their objection.
What powers do the locals have, if holiday makers can force decisions that are bad for the town?
Susan
Expat in Ireland
2
There is a rooster living - and crowing - on the lane where my summer home is located. I look forward to hearing him. His crowing is part of the appeal of being away from the city. Seasonal residents and vacationers come and go . . . and they should be able to cope with a crowing rooster. I'm with Maurice . . . crow on.
2
The vacationers should go to bed earlier. Or, they could sue the person who rented them the vacation spot. Maybe they will enjoy the sounds of the courtroom more than the rooster. I would prefer the rooster over the sound of a gavel on wood any day.
1
There are rural fowl that make noise and there are urban foul that make noise. What else needs to be said?
1
“Recalling that some vacationers had even demanded the silencing of the church bells, the mayor said, “A minority wants to impose their way of life.”
This passage from the Mayor speaks the truth....
1
When my husband and I lived in Kathmandu, we heard not only morning roosters (plural!), but dogs barking through the night. Not to mention all of the morning bells as women do their puja (worship) at temples. Thousands of little bells. At first, it's hard to sleep, and then eventually you grow accustomed to the sounds. For me, the sound of a rooster crowing reminds me of a wonderful year abroad. That said, in our neighborhood, we are zoned for chickens, but not roosters, alas. Too much noise.
47
I see a bigger picture issue of vacationers wanting to force their preferences on the year round permanent residents.
It has been happening here too, with the enthusiastic cooperation of our city government.
6
When a conflict is between residents and vacationers, and the vacationers ask things like removing a rooster, the sensible response is to remove the vacationers.
Vacationers are just visiting a place, and presumably visiting because they enjoy the ambience. They're not moving onto a TV set of the place, they're spending some time among real people living their real lives.
Would this retired couple want all the trolleys in Limoges taken out if some vacationer felt the overhead wires interfered with their holiday pictures? Would they want their stores unstocked because the trucks make noise and might wake up a vacationer?
Live with the rooster a few weeks, folks. Enjoy your vacation.
8
All the power to Maurice!
9
Would much rather listen to a rooster crowing than the crowing of Donald Trump.
14
I'm sorry but that is typically the kind of article that reinforces clichés and stereotypes. I live in France and I suppose I follow the news but I've never heard of that story which is totally irrelevant here. A photo of an old woman with a rooster, what's missing in the picture is an old man with a beret and someone in the background carrying a baguette. Oh, I forgot. There should also be someone playing the accordion on a bench nearby (while smoking a gauloise of course)...
Please...
1
You have a valid point. I would offer this, however. We Americans are starved for stories reminding us there are “silly” things to be bothered by. What may sèmes cliched and tiresome to you, is charming relief for us. We get the important and real news from France all the time. Despite the cliches about Americans, most of us are aware of international news. A story about Maurice on a Sunday is a relief around here. If the same occurred in small town America, we’d love to read that too. Unfortunately, I fear, that story would have other, more violent, content. Maurice would have ended up in crosshairs.
3
Of course, if you didn’t hear about it didn’t happen....
2
When you move to the country, you should expect the sounds of the country.
9
More bullying of regular folks by the wealthy, greedy and hyper-privileged. From billionaires buying up vast tracts of wilderness land in the West, to LLC shell companies abusing low-income tenants with their unmaintained, filthy tenements, to investment companies buying up huge blocs of single family homes to drive up the prices so high that no one in the middle class can afford them. Capitalism is the cancer destroying our world. This obnoxious behavior is driven by greed. Studies show that wealth makes people callous and lacking empathy.
Why do these obnoxious people move to the country and then try to destroy what makes it special? Wouldn’t they rather hear a rooster crow, a cow moo, a duck quack or a sheep bleat than be subjected to the incessant din of cars and scooters?
Spoiled brats.
13
I live in rural New Hampshire. I moved here from suburban New Jersey. I have no patience for people who come from developed areas into rural ones and then object to the sounds of rural life. If you don’t like rooster crowing, cows mooing or the smell farm animals make, or gunshots (I am not a big fan of these, but it is rural life, especially in New Hampshire) stay where you are.
This family should go back to their suburb. Free the rooster.
14
Vive le coq! We live very near the coast of southern England where there are lots of seagulls, black birds and crows all beginning their songs at sunrise. Humans, please also keep away from here if the normal noises of birds and other animals bother you.
8
A rooster's crow is comforting, charming, unlike the intrusion of a loud truck or leaf blower. If these vacationers can't just relax and enjoy the ambience of their chosen destination then they should go elsewhere.
14
Why go to the country if you don't like the country sounds. Stay in the City where you are used to the sirens and loud noises.
Country folks should not have to change their way of life to suit outsiders.
11
Maurice was there first. The sound of his welcoming a new day makes more sense than the feeble protests of the interlopers.
3
@Michael Valentine Smith -
No, Maurice wasn't there first.
"The lawyer said his clients built their house some 15 years ago and had enjoyed peaceful vacations until Ms. Fesseau installed her chicken coop in 2017."
That said, country noises should be expected in the country.
I’m pro rooster - but he wasn’t there first. Neighbors built their vacation house 15 years and Maurice a d his coop came in 2017 - it’s in the article. Regardless, it’s the country, Maurice’s owner lives there full-time and that outweighs the desires of someone with a holiday home.
1
@Michael Valentine Smith: Uhm, no, actually. The vacationers were there already 15 years before Maurice entered the stage... But, they apparently never heard of ear plugs... And the rooster's owner could lock up her rooster in the dark until, let's say 7am. I wonder why a situation that would be easy to find a compromise on, turned into such acrimony and if there wasn't more going on.
I doubt many of my fellow New Yorkers have actually heard, let alone be awakened by a rooster’s call as I have. It is tantamount to a human screaming at the very top of their lungs. It is jarring, it is obtrusive; and if your neighbor began waking you in such a fashion after 15 years of not doing so, you’d be up in arms as well.
5
Instead of a lawsuit against the rooster, Maurice, the vacationers should offer to pay his owners to cut off his head. If their offer is refused, let them go somewhere else for a vacation.
We live in “ a town of farms” in Northern CT where there is a mix of 200 year old farm houses and “mini mansion” developments. The farm animals have grandfathered rights. St.-Pierre-d’Oterion is clearly rural and the Limoges couple should respect the environment that must have been attractive in the first place for them to build a vacation home. I fully support Maurice’s culture war.
5
We bought a "country" house 20 years ago in what has now become a bedroom community of NYC with a 95 mile commute for some daring souls. Anyway, our property backs up onto a farm and, yes, there are chickens and over the years, a series of roosters--some who died of old age and some who overstepped their boundaries (we were told). They all crowed. One in particular didn't wait for the sun to rise--any flash of light from headlights, porch light, got him to crowing. We loved it! It also didn't take more than a couple of weeks for us to sleep right through it--after all we were veterans of NYC garbage trucks, sirens, car alarms, etc.... Wouldn't you much rather hear a rooster or singing birds or croaking frogs? A free white noise machine as far as I am concerned. I love Maurice and he has a lovely voice. Let's not destroy the country way of life any more than civilization already has. I'm also betting that this litigious couple favors eating freshly laid eggs over store bought. I'd "lay" money on it.
11
Rich #ouche disease - me me me
1
The only thing more outrageous than a bunch of tourist suing to silence a rooster, was the story of the fisherman. Imagine being told by a bunch invasive tourist to cement over your hedge because the birds that live in it are annoying.
Tourist are a plague the world over. They come looking for "experiences" and endless selfies, but destroy everything they touch.
9
Dear Maurice: the sun rises only because you crow, and everyone with a near-to-the-land education worth having knows this. Don't be depressed: celebrate the powers of your species! Half the planet at a time depends on you roosters to summon that sleepy sun to its job of keeping us all warmed and fed.
On rural ways: I still remember with fondness a local farmer's working dog that routinely slept in the summertime on the double-yellow line on a county road up here back in the late 1970s. Not only did the setting sun warm the pavement there of an evening, but his chosen bed allowed him to divide loyalties equally between guarding "his" cows and his human family across the way against any untoward approach of things that might go bump in the night.
These days I'm just grateful that dog passed to the next life before being ushered there by some tank-like SUV making its way here from the city to a weekend residence in the wee hours of a Saturday morning. Hundreds of old farmhouses around here were bought at fire-sale prices as the bankrupting 1980s rolled into what was once home to small dairy farms, half-sleeping watchdogs and rafts of roosters greeting the dawn. Now we hear fewer cries of the rooster and more sirens of EMS vehicles heading out to try to extricate careless SUV drivers from vehicles that have ended up in this or that ditch or creek. I'd far rather hear roosters.
8
I love peace and quiet - but I love the sounds of nature even more, to connect me to our real roots. This article brings to mind the time French colleagues and I set up tents in the very large backyard of a Normandy house, to be awakened early morning by cows wandering through.
We went to the beach to pick fresh mussels which the French deftly steamed into a magnificent dish for all. It was only for a day, but I’ve never forgotten it.
Back home in Paris, which is anything but rural, I was heartened to have a small garden view and have birds wake me every morning.
7
Shouldn't the desires and culture of year-round residents have more bearing of local policy than the complaints of one couple who visit for a few weeks each year? I don't see why this is even a controversy. Vive le coq!
7
I’ve been birding for 40 years. When people say they are afraid of birds, I can understand their phobia, because I’ve had my share, which, with time, and exposure to my fear, I’ve overcome.
In autumn wild turkeys by the dozens walk across our lawn and poke and peck until they disappear into the woods. My wife reminds them thanksgiving is right around the corner, but they ignore her.
To sit on our deck and listen to the avian opera. Is one of life’s great pleasures.
5
My neighbor has a motorcycle which he rides late at night. My other neighbor sometimes has parties late at night. Occasionally sirens and car alarms go off. A rooster call for 10 seconds does not seem like a big deal.
8
I’ve just walked through a part of northeastern France and I would welcome the sound of a rooster in any of the small villages I passed through. While surrounded by fields of wheat, barley and colza (canola), the vast majority of the villages were no more than rural dormitories for working families with no café, no shops, not a single thing open or a person on the streets. It was depressing. So if there’s a corner of rural France that still preserves a living link to a real rural way of life, it deserves all the support it can get.
8
There are all kinds of roosters and all kinds of pet owners. We lived next door to folks who let their aggressive rooster run on our property even after he gouged our cat in the chest, requiring stitches. I worked from home, and the bird was often crowing on my doorstep at midday as I talked to clients on the phone. (They were not amused.) No objection to a bit of early a.m. crowing, but this was over the top. Much like dog owners who allow their dogs to bark for hours in the yard. I don't see this as an urban vs. rural issue. It's a matter of degree, mutual consideration and common courtesy.
5
“The rooster has a right to crow, the countryside has a right to its sounds and outsiders have no business dictating their customs to its rural denizens.”
That just about sums it up. I lived for a few years in rural Western Massachusetts across a dirt road from a dairy farm. I knew it wasn’t Boston or Los Angeles and so accepted the occasional powerful stench of the farmer opening his cow barn in the depth of winter for a bit of fresh air as well the early morning crow of roosters. I got used to it and actually grew to love it. When my personal experiment of “Valley Girl attempts country living” came to a deeply satisfying end, I moved back to LA, though I did miss the early morning call of roosters. I still visit Western Mass often.
Count me on “Team Maurice”. Long may his spirit crow throughout the world’s remaining rural spaces in “liberté, égalité, fraternité”!
13
Folks differ in their tolerance of noise. Some find the sounds of a lawn mower, a car radio, or loud barking objectionable. Others may feel aggrieved when their ability to get a full night's sleep is taken away by a neighbor who acquires a bird that determines their daily wake-up time for them. The couple's petition to restore the quiet they enjoyed for many years before Fesseau bought the rooster seems understandable and not unreasonable.
4
@Admiral, this is the old riddle. Which came first, the chicken or the city slickers?
I live in a suburban part of a city where roosters are banned. Hens are fine. Nevertheless, having had a large coop with many hens in Western MA, we decided to get into the egg business here as well and built a smaller coop which housed about a dozen hens. Roosters tend to appear "accidentally" when you order sexed chicks through the mail - there's always a chance a rooster or two may slip in. So in deference to the neighbors we acquired one small bantam rooster, Fritz, with a quiet yet insistent crow. His early morning serenade was praised by some (one loved hearing him in the morning and said it reminded her of growing up in Japan) and ignored by the rest - no complaints until new people bought the house next door. Apparently one was a light sleeper and woke up when our little rooster began crowing in the early morning. Unbeknownst to us, they tried replacing their windows on our side of their home. After a couple of months, they mentioned that the crowing was waking them up. Sadly, we re-homed Fritz (always loved roosters because of their personalities). We didn't hesitate, since roosters were not allowed in the first place and we always knew at some point, someone might be bothered. Our wonderful neighbors rewarded us with a delicious pie as a thank you - but I'm still sad that little rooster had to go. And if they ever move, I will try again!
4
I think the crux of the matter is this, the rooster was not a prior resident when Jean-Louis Biron and Joëlle Andrieux built and moved in nor were there roosters on the neighbors property. The rooster was introduced 15 years later. To me it’s like living near an airport. If you lived there before construction you get to complain about the noise. If you move there afterwards, no so much. These folks were there before the chicken. I smell Coq Au Vin in someone’s future.
7
As people lead more insular lives cocooned from nature some begin to see nature as an intrusion something they must try desperately to control. Their dislocation form nature is a form of self denial and self destruction.
12
To truly live up to their Gallic heritage, after they prevail in court, Maurice would need be served, Coq Au Vin.
2
The town should offer to send the Limoges couple to another island - Key West. (Shh don’t tell them about Maurice’s cousins.)
10
Yesssss!
1
Oh, for God's sake! Just goes to show that rich folks everywhere are quite easily capable of acting like they own the earth.
If I lived in France, I'd be signing the petition in favor of Maurice. If there's an international version, I'll find it and support him.
As Monsieur Morandeau, the fisherman, says, "What the heck, it's a rooster"!
16
Got a problem with a rooster? What about children?!!!! They make noise all day, they yell, they scream when they play, they cry........
Why do my neighbors have to have children????
(Kidding)
26
@WildCycle I have an acquaintance who actually used to complain about children playing outside in the spring, because he sometimes worked the night shift. Another friend of his also did the same and complained as well. I guess children should just sit inside quietly every single day. I had no sympathy, get white noise machine, ear plugs, even a fan, or a new job.
2
I'm with Maurice. In fact, I may get a rooster one day and keep him on my 5 acres in New Hampshire, get him a few hens to play with, too. Meanwhile I have my own noise problem. A retired firefighter from New York bought a house in the woods across from me and set up a shooting range where he practices with his AR-15...sounds like a war zone. My other neighbors hate it even more than I do... only takes one idiot to ruin things for everybody. It shouldn't be illegal to break one of these things over the owners head.
10
Let them eat eggs! ;)
10
The entitled couple apparently wish to further an earlier French tradition famously articulated by Marie Antoinette. With the haughty aire of Aristos perhaps they would do well to anticipate events ... au revoir.
4
Incredible that someone would move (or visit) the country and want to eradicate everything that smacks as country. Ducks quack, Roosters crow, dogs bark. It’s sunrise, get up!
9
Vive la belle France! Vive le coq Maurice!
10
I used to live in the country and had bantams. The roosters were my favorites - so cocky and full of themselves...and yes, they crow and evidently don't sleep a full eight hours. I am a light sleeper, but their occasional crowing never bothered me and frantic crowing alerted me if anything was amiss. Now I hear owls all night. When I lived in the mountains, a visitor said he could not sleep because of the frogs croaking. He was used to the constant nocturnal cacophony of sirens, screams, and traffic. He said that the country was too quiet except for the noisy frogs. People like this need to stay where nature has been paved over. Either that or shut up.
17
Oh, for Pete's sake, get those Philistines some earplugs. There is silence aplenty in the grave. I'm for Maurice. Vive le coq!
21
Being part French myself and having French citizenship I will say that the French are becoming more and more like the stereotype of “ugly Americans.” This article is so absurd or is it surreal? I’m not sure which or both. There will always be jerks who say their are too many Brits or whoever in France, but this shows the French are becoming their own enemies. Perhaps they always have been.
7
Vive le coq!
5
Vive Maurice!!!
5
I'm as 'city girl' as they come and wouldn't dare move to an island and demand that all animal noises cease. What ridiculous entitlement.
9
Ive never been to France but from the looks of it they're a bit too much like litiginous Americans. You could sound proof a bedroom for the cost of a lawyer's salary.
4
It is arrogant to the nth degree to buy a vacation house that you use a few weeks a year and expect the neighbors to change their lifestyles to suit your petty needs.
8
Seriously! Suing your neighbor because a rooster is doing exactly what he was created to do?! How petty! Anyone moving to areas where there is wildlife, small or large farms, must be prepared for the sounds of nature! Don’t like it? Stay in the city!
Vive Maurice!!!
9
I vote for Maurice!
5
And, for there to be le Coq Sportif, there first must be le Coq, nez pas?
3
Really nicely written.
9
The headline for this story is absolute gold.
4
I side with the rooster.
4
What does Ms. Fesseau do with all those eggs?
2
These folks are so out of line here. They chose to live in a rural setting. Rural sounds (and smells) are different than city and suburban smells.
Years ago, in NH, we had newly ruralized homeowners who bought in a development adjacent to agricultural fields and a dairy farm. Come Spring, when the manure was spread, the lawsuits were thicker than the classic aroma.
Shortly after, these ruralizing commuters began their litany - the school bus doesn't stop close enough to the driveway. Not enough streetlights (never mind the light pollution), rough roads during Spring thaw/mud season and my favorite - loud cows! Apparently the occasional mooing much too loud.
All this from folks who were gone at least 12 hours a day, stayed inside when they were home and contributed nothing except whining and lawsuits to the fabric of their community.
Country life is different, folk. get used to it.
18
Ear plugs.
7
"but as always in a country where hidden significance is never far from the surface"
So what can this "observation" possibly mean? Maybe it implies that this is more the case in France than other countries. Is that true, compared to our own land of dog-whistles? In any case--It doesn't look like the "significance" is very hidden since it's close to the surface. So, word salad disguised as insight.
I pick this sentence because it seems to me that much of the Times' London and Paris reporting is based on the idea that the French and British (except the ones in the know, who are found in the bars of the capital city) are quaint and unsophisticated, with little trace of the ironic self-awareness that characterizes the denizens of those bars.
3
the rooster must be defended and tourists should stay home!! Not really, every single town, city in Europe is assaulted by tourists and life has become impossible for locals!
3
We've lived in the country for the past 52 years and have seen this repeatedly. City folk move out here and then complain that the flies from cattle or horse farm that was next to he property they bought it is now a public nuisance. Or the fragrance of the spring manure spreading season is a public nuance, etc., etc., Please just stay in the city and don't come out here and try to force your clueless fantasies of what country life is like on us.
10
Vive la coq! I think the owners of the home these horrible people rent should end their lease. Such arrogance. Stay in the city with the noise of the cars.
1
Sound proof your bedroom. Then have a nice glass of wine and move on. It's the country...
3
Earplugs or the people should vacation elsewhere. Refund their money and send them hime.
3
Have they heard of white noise machines over there? Really, they work. In NYC.
5
a rooster crowing is not noise - it's life!
7
I surmise that these control freaks
Would have early morning thunderstorms with
Thunder banished also.
The real imperative here is containing their
Negative thoughts whirling around endlessly
And disturbing their own organs and psyche ,
And bye extension
Everyone and everything else.
same thing that causes wars.
It’s called taking responsibility for your internal
Environment,
Not foisting your petty
Odiferous Narcissism onto innocents,
6
“I’m a booster of the rooster”
-Johnny Mercer
4
Hooray for the Mayor! Defend this and all roosters of your island. Let no one come between your country life and its sounds and appearances. I cannot imagine a better way to awaken than the sounds of our animals. Vacationers are oh so puny to let crowing bother them; have another glass of the best wine in the world since you're right in the locale for it! Gee, what some people will gripe about amazes me. Mayor, hang tough!!!!!!!
8
I've a feeling this citified couple isn't going to be welcome in that town for long, as word of their war against Maurice spreads. No more lattes in the cafe, only stale bread available at the baker's ("Non, mon ami, we air all sold out!" as she slides the good stuff under the counter.)
4
Get up with the birds, go to bed with the birds. You will see some amazing sunrises and sunsets in the process.
4
I don’t know.
“The lawyer said his clients built their house some 15 years ago and had enjoyed peaceful vacations until Ms. Fesseau installed her chicken coop in 2017.”
Perhaps the coop is within a few feet of the bedroom of Mr. Biron and Ms. Andrieux. We don’t know. But what clearly changed is that the din of nature encroached upon the plaintiffs. Not the other way round.
3
Doesn’t matter. It’s country life, and vacationers don’t get to dictate it. The height of petty entitlement.
6
Maurice is doing what he was born to do, and the sound of a rooster's crow is lovely and uplifting. The objecting couple have got it all wrong: when in the city do they file suits over engines revving, car horns blaring, sirens wailing?? Every setting has its own sounds; in the country it's the crow of a rooster.
6
For twenty years I was fortunate to have a house in old town Key West. This was before the giant cruise ships arrived and it was mostly the native Conchs living there. It was heaven. There were chickens and roosters on every block announcing the morning sun. I loved it but those days may now be gone since most of the old homes are now guest houses. Now living in Watermill NY even though it is still rural every morning I am awakened to the sound of large lawn mowers and gasoline leaf blowers. Oh how I miss those roosters.
8
OTOH, would you like it if a rooster moved in next door after living without one for fifteen years? Right on the other side of your suburban-sized hedge — which in France means une petite jardin? The complainants could have their bedroom window within a meter of Maurice’s beak.
3
You need a rooster if you're going to have chickens!
According to the article, the rooster only crowed at 6 am and 6:20 am and was done for the day. Unlike a barking dog (nothing against dogs, just an example) who can bark nonstop for hours when left alone.
6
The article is pretty much microcosm of France. The rooster, the cranky French couple, protests,heritage, love for tradition and their vacations. Plus ça change.
3
There are always people who think only of themselves. Here in Philadelphia we are plagued with motorcycles without mufflers roaring down the streets and gunning their motors at traffic lights. It is all about them. It’s the country. What do you expect?
5
I use to see big red buses full of elderly German tourists that plied the route between Alaska and Tierra del Fuego. At every stop they would ride their portable bicycles around muttering that everything was better, cleaner and prettier in German. The locals in turn would rejoin much more loudly "why don't you go back to Germany?"
2
The photo captured ‘residents in the same development’ tells the 1,000 words not in the story. This appears to be a planned urban development not the rural farm with horses or the seaside fisherman’s cove pictured in the story. Imagine ‘condo owner builds chicken coup and is surprised neighbors don’t like it’ in your hometown newspaper (or google news feed?)
While the town/ city is not urban area overall, there are pockets of development, like this development, where the owners ‘agreed’ to live together for their collective benefit. One benefit is likely a lower cost of development. It is not collectively fair to allow someone to create a nuisance in this collective living area like adding a rooster to the environment.
If this was a neighbor building a McMansion next to the pictured horse farm, or the neighbor asking to replace the hedge with concrete next to the pictured fisherman’s cove, then Maurice wins. But in this relatively dense development, I think it is likely Maurice is the loser.
15
@Aaron I think "the same development" refers to the place where the couple who object to Maurice live and where another couple who don't also live. The rooster's owner seems to live in a much older house (see the old stone walls, etc.) which is probably adjacent. If you build a condo community, you may have rules agreed to by its residents, but these don't apply to neighbors in the area which pre-date the condo community.
88
@Aaron With a little research, you will find that Ms. Fesseau lives and has lived in a very old house and that the condominium development (or whatever it is) that the Limoges couple lives in abuts her property. She was there first and doesn't live in their development. It is outrageous that the couple from Limoges doesn't adapt to the country setting and its noises. My grandfather had chickens and roosters and I long for the days of hearing the roosters crow early in the morning when I spent a few weeks each summer with him.
67
@Aaron: You don't get out in the country much, do you? The animals in the photo you reference aren't horses, they're donkeys.
54
The rooster needs to be able to crow. The tourists should accept that. If the tourists don't like the sound of the rooster, then they should stay is Paris where it is always peaceful and quiet. The tourists' argument is ludicrous.
1
Try living under a neighbor who does furniture moving at 3 a.m.
Hopefully the couple will never take a trip some place as exotic as Istanbul, where the early morning call to prayer from the minarets will absolutely plaster you to the ceiling from a dead sleep.... Much louder than a rooster and much earlier.... Also a fond memory for me... That first morning, we will never forget....
5
People are commenting on the confrontation between the two neighbors. The bigger picture is Frances’s attempt to save the identity of their countryside, the simple way of life, from the voracious appetites of the wealthy. For us, the Hudson River Valley is next. Has anyone noticed how the N.Y. Times is in a mission to gentrify that historic, pastoral landscape? Every week there’s a new article in the travel section aimed at wealthy Manhattanites and Brooklynites. Thank NY Times!
5
This is a joke? Right? A rooster in a little town? Anywhere? Sure, I get tired of the guy up the street going off at 3:00 AM. Even tossed a rock at him once. Sue the owners who get eggs from its hens.? Sue them? You gotta be kiddin me!
2
Are the Russians trying to amplify yet another culture war?
I grew up in a tourist town. The impact of summer people became more important as all kinds of light industry left town. It is not just the tourists becoming annoyed about this or that, it is also the cultural and economic differences that are expressed all kinds of ways. The air of superiority is thick. I suggest that the people who do not like the rooster get ear plugs. Can you imagine insisting that people not honk their car horns in New York City? As the saying goes, "When in Rome...
2
If you live in a town with next door neighbors, you don't get a rooster. Nor barking dogs. I live in Mexico much of the year and this is a real problem as Mexican zoning is not much of a thing.
This is noise pollution and harassment, pure and simple. Luckily this makes Mexicans crazy too and they have a civic department that addresses quality-of-life. But old customs don't fade quickly.
16
@Benjy Chord
Some years ago I spent a winter with a family in a colonia in Tampico. The first night I barely slept for the dogs conversing in the neighborhood. In the morning I asked them about the dogs, and they said, "What dogs?" By the time I left 4 months later I couldn't hear them either.
12
@Benjy Chord
But in Mexico and New Mexico and in parts of California, the chickens and the roosters do run around allover a property. In California, chicken owners let their chickens run free, but it is dangerous for the chicken. In Hawaii, chickens and roosters, run down the rows of green plants on a farm.
I imagine in Mexico, that the farms are closer together or that an ordinary person can raise chickens in their limited backyard. In your case, where "craziness" can happen is due to the lack of space between dwellings.
3
@Benjy Chord Well it seems to me that you need to live waaaay out in the middle of nowhere. When you choose to live in a more densely populated area, with that comes dogs and noise and yes, sometimes a rooster. I live in the middle of Oakland, CA and we have it all. I welcome it. Might I suggest earplugs?
10
Fascinating article by Adam Nossiter, and great photos. Tourists can destroy a culture. AirBnB is similar in its alteration of local dwellings:
"These neighbors, a retired couple from near the central French city of Limoges, say the rooster makes too much noise and wakes them up. They want a judge to remove him."
It's difficult for me to imagine that the plaintiffs' case can hold any sway. Of course, living environments do become zoned. When I was a child, a woman had a chicken coup in our neighborhood, a neighborhood that had become a suburban NYC bedroom community. But this was an integral neighborhood of people, all of whom lived there. We got the fresh eggs, something that is today absent from the sterile, suburban life. I think the chickens just went away, not because of any nasty tourists.
Mr. Biron and Ms. Andrieux don't have much of a case unless the neighborhood is zoned against Maurice, it seems to me. If they don't want chickens, then they should sell their place and go to one of those hoity-toity resorts that *serve* chicken.
8
I have a House with a garden and summerhouse with a rather wild garden too.
I have a total of 41 bird houses, most of them built by myself and a few by my late uncle in Ontario Canada and imported to Denmark. One looks like a Canadian log cabin and Danish birds apparently like globalisation and nest in it.
It is such a pleasure to watch the birds especially in the Spring where everything gets green and the birds are busy feeding their young ones in the bird houses.
Admitted they make a lot of noise early from about 3 AM, but I have a good stock of ear plugs and those eye-covers you get in aeroplanes, as this time of the year it is light outside at 3 AM.
Many Human beings apparently think they can
Escape from nature, forgetting we are ourselves part of nature.
I am looking forward going to France late August and visiting small villages-always nice to be there with the more traditional rural life; rather than the big metropols. I will bring my earplugs should there be a rooster or two or the natural birds that wants to salute the rising sun as they have done for millions of years.
12
People have been living with roosters’ crowing for tens of thousands of years - with no ill effects. I am assuming the litigants enjoy chicken soup on occasion - perhaps they should make a point of enjoying this more often. A celestial treat such as French chicken soup (with French bread, of course) would put these litigants in a more realistic frame of mind. I stand with Maurice and his family.
11
In Massachusetts, many rural communities have Agricultural Commissions and Right-to-Farm bylaws. They promote and protect farming; educating residents and visitors about farming - including the smells and noises that necessarily accompany such activities.
The days of agriculture being a town’s primary industry is gone here. The goal is to preserve farming while reducing conflicts within a diverse community.
When all is said and done, it comes down to communication, tolerance, and being a good neighbor.
4
This is a common story in VT. NYC couple buys a charming country home in VT with lots of land and gorgeous views. They move in and discover the dairy farm down the street starts cranking at 3:30 AM and insists it stop doing so. You can't make this stuff up.
37
@Dan Murphy
West Coast too. People move to some development next to a farm (oh, look, nature!) and then complain about the "smells".
6
@Dan Murphy: There was actually a family on my block in the town, in Hopkinton, who had a rooster, and I believe a goat, if you can imagine that, in the late 1980's. Obviously the town has changed since then.
And then there was the slaughter house, not too far away from town, from which I got fresh bones to make stock.
But I think the dream of families today is that sterile, manicured development of McMansions.
2
Come to Key West and experience the roosters. A coexistence between man and animal that is the way it should be.
7
@Doremus Jessup and Hawaii, particularly Kauai. Wild chickens run the place. And it certainly hasn't slowed tourism, in fact it adds to the unique character of the island. Just bring earplugs; some roosters begin well before dawn......
2
@Doremus Jessup
Yes. While we also have roosters in our neighborhood, I still get a kick out of the ones in Key West also.
1
Usually around 3 am!
2
I'll take Maurice over Trump any day!
20
Most people would just roll over and go back to sleep. There is a small minority that balloons a minor annoyance into mental anguish until they are ready to explode.
Get over it. Accept it. And go back to enjoying life.
25
What a relief that the selfish, wealthy vacationers aren't Americans (this time).
24
How about when a neighbor blasts his right wing radio from his garage in our rural foothills neighborhood. I can hear it disturb my peace (in more ways than one) at my house 150m away.
17
Totally different, than nature of a rooster.
2
I love the sound of roosters crowing in the morning.
8
Vive Maurice! For crying out loud, Vive Maurice!
15
@chuck. Indeed vive Maurice. I'm all for people living in and exploring places other than their own environs but some of the modern tourists/vacationers are more akin to invading scourges.
6
I’m rooting for the chicken. Even if the neighbors moved in before the rooster, it is unrealistic of them to impose city values on a country town. And roosters crowing beat the heck out of a leaf blower or lawn mower early on a Saturday. Get ear plugs. And the folks who wanted a hedge replaced with a concrete wall because the birds are too noisy are just sick.
18
Save the coq's! How do some people feel it right to move into a community where they have no history, no roots and demand that that community change to meet their expectations and wants? They sound almost, well, American.
11
Are those seasonal residents Americans? Up with Maurice!
5
Close the window!
8
Neither a rooster nor a hedge filled with melodious birds has anything whatsoever to do with “French values.” There are all kinds of good and valid reasons to object to intrusive, obnoxious, arriviste city people who attempt to disrupt the locals, but national values is not one of them. We have enough divisive jingoism in the world without coopting Mother Nature’s innocents into the intolerance.
2
We sold our ranch years ago and moved to town, as they say. My how I miss the sound of the animals each day, particularly the crowing of our beloved former rooster Buddy.
Knowing this, my son bought me a crowing clock for Christmas three years ago. He got it as a gag, but it is hung on the kitchen wall where each day at 6 am it gives off two lovely cockle doodle dos.
And these people get the pleasure of the real thing and want to silence it! Protect Maurice and his right to greet the new day. The complainers are so typical of people who want to control the world to their own liking.
Go Maurice! Allez!
290
I'm a lawyer who lives in a rural area which has a nice mix of farms and relatively new upscale residential development. This mix, as on that lovely French Island, generates neighbor disputes -- e.g., the dairy farmer whose cow was found swimming in his yuppie neighbor's new swimming pool (that was a good one). Here are my reactions to the rooster dispute: 1) Vive Maurice; 2) a bas the neighbors whose resort to litigation rather than neighborliness is sure to make them pariahs; and 3) ditto the lawyer who was crazy enough to take on their case. Since the municipality appears to have no zoning banning farm animals in residential districts, they have no case. Encore: Vive Maurice.
28
When I lived in S WI, the people in a very pricey northern suburb of Chicago had several lakes around their expensive homes. The lakes had lots of frogs and amphibious critters and this was food cranes love and there were lots of cranes spending their summers there. When cranes sense the new day starting, they really call out and it can be heard by all living near them. Well these people liked to sleep with their windows open as the evenings were quite cool.
The residents started a movement to somehow chase off or eliminate the cranes. Cranes are migratory birds and there are federal laws prohibiting interfering with them with big fines and jail sentences. I had lots of them near where I lived - Lake Geneva, WI and frankly I enjoyed hearing them in the morning.
When I lived on the upper east side of Manhattan in the late 60's, I loved to run in Central Park just as the sun was coming up - fewer people and no muggers. Every time I did this I could hear roosters greeting the sun. WOW I thought - roosters on your roof!
9
Similar to here in California..
People move to the country or Central Valley here and are surprised that living next to a farm and it’s smells..
9
Let the rooster alone. If you don’t appreciate the sounds of the countryside, go back to the city and enjoy the sound of car horns and truck engines.
16
A simple solution would be for the vacationers to install a "sound machine" near their beds. They won't hear the rooster. I l sleep next to such a machine. I am on the first floor, and even construction on my street cannot get past the white noise.
15
@uzes90 yep, $10 box fan works great too.
3
Given that fact that on any given day, and usually the minute I go out to sit in my front porch, my peace and quiet, is destroyed by lawn mowers, power chain saws, hedge clippers and those absolutely horrible leaf blowers. (Did no one around here ever hear of a rake and a broom?)
I’ll take a few crows of a rooster over any of those.
33
Yes! I know what you mean, the horrible sounds of those machines drive me nuts! We live on a rural island where it’s relatively quiet, and I dread when our neighbors mow, trim and blow!!! My husband does use these as well, but in the middle of the day. One neighbor goes out first thing in the morning....drives me nuts! Give me the noise of a rooster any day!
4
I’ll trade the near constant weekend barrage of leaf blowers, weed wackers, power washers, and other suburban outdoor power equipment for one Maurice please.
25
Bravo Maurice!!! This American is with you.
15
The old adage "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen" is pretty apt here. This urban couple need to move back to the city where I suppose the beeping of horns and growling of engines is more serene than the crowing of a rooster? This is the countryside for crying out aloud! Get a life, wake up early and take a walk on the beach, the exercise may clear your mind! BTW, have you heard of ear-plugs, they work wonders and can also be plugged to give you the serene sound of breaking waves.
6
Got to chuckle. Earplugs?
3
I live in a rural village in Ohio. I grew up here but was gone for over thirty years living in Australia, Alexandria VA, Germany, etc. in urban settings. My present neighbors have chickens and roosters. I hear the rooster in the morning and as I lie in bed, my cat asleep next to me, I think: “You’ve survived two wars, the death of your wife, then both your brothers, and you’re in relatively good health. You have money in the bank. You have friends who care about you. You have a beautiful home. Appreciate what you’ve got. The rooster is just picking a different way of celebrating that he’s here, and alive. Appreciate the rooster.”
33
@Lightning14
This is an excellent, refreshing comment, and I'm going to try and wake up every day with that much acceptance and joy.
10
Lovely comment!
6
Oh the French! ‘Gotta love them!!
If a crowing rooster is all you have to put up with in order to enjoy the bucolic beauty, then so be it. Wear ear plugs! I’m with Team Maurice!!
9
@Sherry: It isn't just the french. In America, rich city people buy country property that they spend little times at by when they do, they want the normal rural activities to stop so they can enjoy their artificial view of country life. They want ever small town to be Mayberry with lots of expensive restaurants and Starbucks. They want they rural neighbors to hide theri "unsightly cars, and they ever call Animal Control to come shoot the bear that is getting into their non-complying garbage can.
4
@Jeff
You’re absolutely right, Jeff!
@Sherry - similar situation in cities - you know gentrification is under way when the new neighbors sue the people who'd been working in the same spot for decades because they start too early in the morning.
I lived next door to a rooster for years. The sound they make is wildly exaggerated by some—it's really not very loud.
10
@Rickie - Indeed. I rented a house on a small farm for eight years. My landlords kept goats, sheep and chickens in the small barn. I can’t remember ever being particularly bothered by the resident roosters.
In fact these days I get more noise from the local murder of crows - they gather twice a day in the tall trees around here and exchange their opinions, morning and evening.
I also have a skylight over my bed which is open most of the year. The dawn chorus of birds starts every morning before sunrise and ends as the sun rises. I actually find it pleasant rather than bothersome.
3
And when countryfolk visit the cities, do they ask for car alarms, night buses, car horns, and trucks to be silenced?
13
If you don’t like the local culture- don’t live there. Move to a place that is actually urban.
5
i am curious about rooster's owner, corinne,"a torch singer"..now that is something to crow about...
7
Frogs will be next. I built a fish pond into my back patio rebuilding after a house fire. We had a small pond in the ground before and I was interested to see if the frogs could find the new home. Well they did and it is a frog hot tub now and they are loud loud at night. Hurt your ears loud. I know they can be heard from a distance. Good luck telling me to get rid of the frogs! It's nature people, get to know it.
6
I thought I adored all animals (lifelong vegetarian) until a brief stint in Yaounde, Cameroon, where neighbor in a residential area then called "Bastos" kept poultry, and admit to visions of happily looping rooster heads off at 4am. But I digress (and was young and stupid). When in Rome...we seek out these places for their beauty and charm, and when one thing disturbs us, we raise a racket like spoiled toddlers. Forget it. You are a visitor - conduct yourself a gracious visitor. Vive le coq, les cloches d'église, le whatever. Above all, have respect the local residents and their customs. Isn't that what you're there for?
8
I fully support the rooster Maurice.
8
Noise: Lawn mowers, leaf blowers, pressure washers, weed whackers, edgers, chain saws.
Not noise: A rooster.
12
The very definition of bad neighbors. The owner of the rooster should countersue and have the court remove the vacationers.
8
There’s an easy fix for this: earplugs.
7
I love to hear the crowing of the rooster in the morning. It’s hard for me to fathom how such a pleasant sound could be disturbing.
4
Vivre et laisser vivre
6
Now I have an image right out of those 1960s French comedies of a mustachioed court official fumbling along in the dark with his recording instrument, tumbling over the cabbages, in his attempt to capture Maurice's discreet crowing.
15
I grew up half a block from a bus-stop and three blocks from train tracks. We grew use to the sound and vibration. The local horn from the shipyard (Newport News) is like a clock to us. A rooster? LOL.
6
People of France, the people of Vermont are with you. We also are plagued by wealthy, short-term sojourners who want to take the country out of the country, because it is too smelly, or loud, or quiet, or inconvenient to drive on, or too far from the bank. They think they have a right to drive over and pave over or just rule out aspects of vital local life that displease them in some way. We say: If you want to come to the country, then come to the country. It has cowpats in the fields and roosters crowing at dawn and muddy unmended roads for a few months a year. If you don't like, you don't like the country. Stay away!
29
Having just spent a delightful month on the Big Island of Hawaii where feral roosters and chicken's populate the island and air conditioning is rare above the 900 ft level, the sounds of the roosters are wonderful. Can they wake you up? Sure. But that's the charm.
Get a life!
Go Maurice!
12
I’m far more concerned about the beach-full of plastic fishing nets I see in one of the photos.
4
Ironically, when I was traveling in Europe the cities were often loud with mostly tourists up late drinking and laughing and shouting. Ear plugs work well and should be required by the courts for the complaining couple.
5
Last night someone was blasting (illegal) fireworks while visitors complained to us about noise from a remodel across the street that prevented them from sleeping in past 8:30. People complain about the dawn chorus and then play their stereos on full blast all afternoon.
Despite the fact that "noon" has always meant that time when the sun is at its zenith. some people want DST to run year around, with "noon" at 11am. Instead of resetting clocks, shutting up nature, and sleeping hours past dawn, it's time to rethink this absurd denial of nature. Turn off the electric lights. Hear the birds.
7
Interesting that the author didn’t mention that the rooster is a national symbol of France. You may recall the rooster weather cane tumbling off the burning spire at notre dame
9
My husband and I have a weekend house in upstate NY in a small town whose economy depends on agriculture and tourism. Signs posted at the town limits warn all that it is an agricultural town with zoning in effect and enforced—meaning, “ tourists, you are accepting of animal noises and smells.” If that is a nuisance to you, you’ve picked the wrong town for holidays. It would seem that the French would hardly need to be reminded of this.
5
The vacationers can go to the Sahara for quiet.
3
Disney, look no further for inspiration for your next movie. Evil city people move into peaceful country village and disrupt a way of life with their monstrous demands. Beloved rooster loses his voice and innocent birds are evicted from their happy hedge to make way for a hideous concrete wall. I only hope it has a happy ending.
14
The report of the fisherman asked to replace a hedge with a concrete wall was more even more idiotic: too many people like pictures of the countryside or shore, without valuing the actual qualities which make place different.
In some states and rural areas, there are "right to farm" laws which protect actual farmers from complaints about noise and odors. Imagine.
Maurice is not really a resident on a functioning farm, but a symbol of a heritage which is valued.
Frankly, shouldn't permanent residents have the decision making power? Some control over their homes?
2
I lived for a number of years in a very small town of 800 people. There were few rules about keeping animals, and people kept horses and chickens right in the town. A few folks had goats in their yards. It wasn't unusual to see people on horseback riding past my house. Dogs would sleep in the middle of the street, as there was almost no traffic. Some folks on the next street over had a rooster that crowed very early in the morning. At first it drove me nuts, but eventually I got used to it. I also heard horses neighing and snorting at various times. It just became part of the environment after a while--no different than birds singing and bees buzzing. I can't imagine complaining about these animal noises to anyone in that town. I'd have just been laughed at as a crazy city lady. The citizens of Saint-Pierre-d’Oléron should hold fast to their way of life. It is for the outsiders to conform to the town's ways, not the other way round.
273
@Ms. Pea what town was that? I want to retire there!
18
I was raised with chickens etc. in the 1950's and '60's about 1.5 hours from mid town Manhattan.
There was even a hen who would lay eggs on my mothers lap.
Now I live in the Pacific Northwest about 40 miles north of Portland OR.
Deep woods. Neighbors on both our left and right keep chickens. The roosters start around 5am.
My advice for the people who move to the country and try to impose their way on the natives: GET OVER IT. Or move.
9
Small foam earplugs. Voila! Problem solved.
4
The rooster does have a right to crow - it's the countryside. I understand it can be a pain - I was on vacation in Costa Rica a few years ago, and every morning inevitably a rooster from a neighboring property would let it rip around 4:30 am. It was not fun - your only real option is to use ear plugs, or use your own white noise machine. But i was vacationing there - the rooster lived there, and this was in the middle of the mountains. His territory, not mine.
11
This reminds me of another French drama between an ultra-famous movie director, who ironically made a famous movie about the bucolic splendors of Provence, and his humble farmer neighbors. They installed an egg farm on their land, next to his fabulous estate. He was bent out of shape at the quality of life change — the smells, the crowing — and took them to court several times, and lost each time. Provence, even with its major tourism and filthy-rich estates, is seen as rural by any and every French judge. This ongoing legal dispute was a well-known battle around here. The even stranger irony is that he bottles his wine at a local winery and the label of his brand has a rooster on it! A little one, but nevertheless there it is. I pointed out the irony to the man behind the counter and got a perfect French shrug. Maurice, BTW, will win.
9
Many years ago a group of owners at a newly constructed condominium complex in a small Eastern Shore, Maryland town (with one crab restaurant that was only open part of the year) petitioned the town council to find a way to stop the clanking sound of sailboats at mooring in the town’s only marina because it disturbed them.
It’s so long ago, I’m hazy on the outcome. This was before embarrassingly self-indulgent lawsuits were de rigueur. I vaguely remember mocking derision and suggestions of ‘perhaps you’d be better off living further inland.’
It’s funny because I vividly remember the crabs and the Old Bay. I probably have my mallet somewhere if I root through my junk drawer.
I say give the poulet-haters of St. Pierre-D’Oleron three days food and rations and set them adrift. Bon voyage.
7
Years ago, we lived in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. Old Town. Terraced housing. About a Street away lived a rooster. Every morning. Sunrise. Could he crow! Great neighborhood. Great neighbors. Great rooster.
3
I support Maurice, but...
The Limoges couple are long time owners of the property on the island; they built their home there; and, if the article's facts are right, the neighbors added the rooster in 2017, well after the couple owned, built, and vacationed there.
In other words, Maurice's family brought him in and changed the environs.
For me, that changes things. It suggests that Maurice's family may need to move his coop to a different part of their property or even put in some sort of sound barrier — perhaps the two couples could split the cost.
OTOH, it sounds as if Maurice is pretty quiet for a rooster — crows a couple of times — and gets on with his day. The Limoges couple could simply roll over and go back to sleep — or, put in ear plugs, if Maurice is in a musical mood!
4
@Marsha Pembroke
Speaking from experience (eight years as a tenant on a small working farm) I would say that Maurice is more typical than not.
If your municipal jurisdiction allows for chickens then you have little right to complain if your neighbour decides to have one.
One of my neighbors, in an older inner suburb, has a rooster. Let it crow; it should not bother anyone.
If people don't want the sounds of nature, they should live in urban high-rises.
4
Where I live in California, we have a right to farm ordinance. Every prospective mortgage-buyer is on notice that farms are more than just picturesque orchards and blank-and-white cattle: this is a working landscape.
Agriculture is an industrial use. Those orchards are going to be sprayed, pruned, watered, shaken, and vacuumed. The cows are going to make noise twice a day at milking time, parlor equipment makes noise, and yes, cows produce prodigious quantities of pat. Don't want it? Move back to the Bay Area and we'll ship you the sanitized version.
5
Friends of mine bought a lakeside cottage some years ago. The wife could not stand insects so her husband obligingly inundated the place with insecticide from early spring every year. The lake is now officially dying and the couple is being sued by other cottagers. Criminal charges are also pending. Trying to bring condo living conditions to the country can have devastating consequences.
10
Vacationers should simply wear good 31 decibels earplugs!
They are very effective. I stand with the rooster.
3
I strongly support Madame Fesseau and Maurice. How very sad that some people are so divorced from the natural world that they complain about the crowing of a rooster. Every day on my walk in our local park, I see people with plugs in their ears listening to who knows what but certainly not to the wonderful songs of the birds in the park. It is easy to see how Earth has come to its current wretched state - too many people have lost contact with nature.
4
There is a whole new class of people that have evolved over the last 50 years. They are normally ‘people’ from the city. They have no idea where a tomato comes from, how it is grown, what the plant looks like. If they see a blemished tomato in the supermarket, they will not buy it. They need cosmetic perfection over taste. If you present to them garden grown tomatoes with all their imperfections, no matter how tasty, they become repulsed and destabilized.
This class of people can’t cope with a simple tomato. Present them a rooster,....now that’s simply too much !
5
Ah yes the local husbandry is ruining my vacation scree. Or put another way: NIMBYism goes on the road. I can't wait to see rural animal ratings on Trip Advisor. Too funny. Vacations (at least for me) are about experiencing your new surroundings. To quote Hunter S Thomson: "“No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride…and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well…maybe chalk it off to forced conscious expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten.” I remember being in a restaurant in a small town off the highway in Ethiopia north of Addis Ababa. The food was delicious and our meal was further enhanced by a goat or two wandering through the restaurant as we ate. I couldn't tell you what we ate but I do remember that goat. Sometimes it's all about the experience.
3
I’d trade my neighbor’s yowling beagle for Maurice any day. And by day I mean all day every day.
4
This is so reminiscent of the New Yorkers who moved to CT "to the country because it was so bucolic," but then wanted the sounds of the bells in town silenced and the smells from the dairy farms gone. They wanted the countryside without thinking of what that entailed. Oh well, people aren't so different the world over. It's funny what we want and what we want changed.
4
Here is also a rural island community. The loudest noise by far is from motorcycles, followed by dogs who can bark continuously for hours at a time and do so every day.
There are roosters but I hardly notice them, mostly because of many more kinds of birds right outside the window.
A long time ago people used to say "a man kills the thing he loves." I'm not exactly sure what that means, but it seems to apply. A lot of folks descend on the place, fleeing the city for some peace and quiet. The end result is it is just like the city.
Personally I'd much rather listen to roosters in the morning than loud motorcycles all hours of the day and night.
3
I like to compare the crows of different roosters. Some are short, some are long, some have a downward glissando coda. The rooster sections of agricultural fairs are the places for me.
4
Far too many years ago I spent a month in Cuernavaca, Mexico studying Spanish. I lived with a poor family in a residential neighborhood that would properly be called urban. One of my favorite memories is the sound of roosters crowing early every morning. It struck me then that this was an essential part of that setting and good for me to experience. Although I am a morning person, and maybe these kvetchers are not, I suggest they count their blessings and accept (and appreciate) that they are not in Limoges, and that roosters crowing goes with the place they have come to.
8
I had friends living in Mill Valley, CA which is known for it's redwood trees or heritage trees I think they cal them. It's such a lovely town and the surrounding forest (near muir woods) makes you feel like you have escaped San Francisco for a peaceful rural village. I loved house sitting for them.
The thing is those trees block the sun out and what happens is some people move in and then they miss the sun or the view and start chopping down the trees or trimming them. The trees are what makes Mill Valley special.
I don't care if Maurice came before or after these people bought there home. If having farm animals on this island is part of the way of life, then Maurice should stay.
19
I have much sympathy with the rooster but knowing how close to each other the fishermen houses are on Oléron Island, I understand the problem. A rooster singing at sunrise one or two meter away from a sleeping room would, most likely, already have been a cause of tensions some 50 or 100 years ago. The best way out might be a shared Coq au Vin.
2
Same thing happened in Vermont. People moved there, stayed two weeks in the summer, and loved the pastoral beauty of mountains and cows grazing in the distance. Cows up close, however, smell like cows.
Needless to say, same thing happened.
You know what? If you don’t like all the things that make a rural area what it is, stay in your city. Please.
49
In virtually every surburban and rural neigjborhoods I've moved to here in the US, I've had to deal with barking dogs. In NYC, it was traffic noise and car horns. If only it were roosters, I probably would be happier.
28
@hmlty I would much prefer to hear a rooster crowing next door than the sound of amplified thump-thump-thump which some call music coming from a nearby park, most weekend nights throughout the summer. I could just imagine the reaction I would get from the police or the local alderman's office if I complained about electronically amplified music which disturbs my peace. It has't happened yet in my neighborhood, but I suspect if someone got a pet rooster and allowed him to crow at sunrise, there would quickly be an army of neighbors trying to ban said rooster. We do have a pair of "guard" dogs in a nearby yard that viciously bark and snarl at everyone who walks past, disturbing neighbors' peace and frightening unsuspecting passersby. So much for civilization! One man's noisy dog is just as annoying as one woman's crowing rooster.
8
I always felt reassured when I heard the morning rooster announcing sunrise. I could smile and go back to sleep in the summer, and know it was time to get up in the winter.
36
We purchased our first house in NJ and with children settled in. The very first morning the house directly across the street introduced us to a new day with the call of a Rooster.
It got our attention quickly. Eventually we all got use to it and did not let it bother us, and were able to sleep through it. Besides, in our case the Rooster was there first.
We got along with our neighbor just fine, and the Rooster.
51
About 30 years ago I moved from London to live in the Massachusetts forest. The sound of coyotes, foxes, dogs, turkeys, crows, and the myriad of other creatures echo through the woods at all times of the day and night. After a couple of months I got used to it and no longer hear it. It is the background music of my life like the sounds in the city were.
I suggest anyone wishing to avoid the upsetting sounds of nature to play a tape of it at night for a couple of weeks before they vacation so they can get used to it.
36
Myriad can be replaced with the word many. Therefore you don't need the "the" or the "of".
1
What a perfect example of the modern "it's all about me and what I want/feel" thinking we see and experience every day. How very sad!
58
@George Sl. I couldn't agree with you more. I'm pro-rooster. Besides, I love the sound of a rooster at sun rise.
31
I'd love to hear a rooster crowing in my neighborhood. Instead I hear the ugly sounds of leaf blowers and huge lawnmowers as the mowing/blowing teams roar through almost every day. We could do with more roosters.Our neighbors are allowed to have hens, but not roosters, and one neighbor has some hens. We are also allowed to have cats who scream at night like babies, and the dogs who bark, sometimes at me and sometimes at strangers to the neighborhood. The animal sounds are fine, except when the neighbor's dog is left outside and wants in, and the neighbor is off to work for 8 hours. The rooster should crow his joy at the rising sun.
76
@John Harkey- Amen!
2
There's a wonderfully noisy pileated woodpecker in the small woods across from my house. I've never seen him/her, but welcome that sound once I can open my Maine windows to the aural joys of spring/summer. Years ago in Poolesville, Maryland, where Sen. Morse's cows used to be pastured across from my then home - my NYC friends just couldn't sleep when visiting because it was too quiet. YIKES! Why don't neurotic people just go for an additional appt with their shrink on what's known as "the flexibility of life".
27
@nimblefin. That's it exactly!! I love waking to those sounds. It makes me want to go there More.
4
I've lived in a city where I heard a rooster crow every morning. I loved hearing him since it made me feel I was in a farming area away from the big city. It is a nostalgic sound and an alarm clock too. Traffic noise is much worse than a rooster crowing.
40
La campagne is not for everyone and the charms of the French countryside are really debatable, but this is not about defending the French way of life. It's about how people joined by property and communal life, can't get along no matter where they live. Having spent numerous summers at my in-laws' home in a small village in the French mountains, where a rooster only crowed for some mysterious reason in the late morning or afternoon, I felt lucky, as a light sleeper, that at least my sleep disturbances weren't related to that (but were due more to a steep, alpine stairway that I'd had to descend en route to les toilettes).
However, my french in-laws' best friends who lived next door, were sued by their neighbors on the other side, because they argued over the sharing of a right to a passage leading to their homes, a right that had been part of communal law for centuries. They claimed my in-laws friends made too much noise (everyone was asleep by ten; children in bed when it was still light out) and they lost the case.
which finally went to court after several years.
I have full sympathy for that poor couple from Limoges. But the rooster will win and they better think about finding another vacation home.
8
For heavens sake, one cannot expect the environment to change for one's personal preferences. If the rooster moved in after they had set up home there, that might be a different story but best I can tell, Maurice was firmly established before they bought their vacation home. I suggest earplugs.
9
@Deb. The rooster DID move in AFTER the couple bought their vacation home. Although the vacation home was purchased 15 years ago, coop wasn’t installed until 2017.
15
@deranieri Yes, but were coops allowed fifteen years ago? If so, it doesn’t matter that Maurice only arrived a couple of years ago.
4
@Deb
If you go back and read the story, the couple was there long before the rooster.
2
Years ago we built a house in NJ right next to a small pond maintained by the fire company. That first year, in the spring, every frog in that pond erupted in mating calls that bounced my teenage son out of his bed with their clamor and into our bedroom which faced to pond to find out what in the world was all that noise. We cracked up laughing and in future years would laugh again when the frog chorus started. It was very early morning, extremely loud and it was a sure signal that spring was on its way.
49
@KLKemp
Frog music. Love it!
And I'll bet you didn't sue the fire department.
8
@Roman No, we were just glad that pond was there as there were no fire hydrants nearby and that pond was the location of lots of teenage winter ice hockey games. I was always loved it when all my son’s friends were hanging around my kitchen island.
3
Why don’t those neighbors go on vacation to Tortolla or St John. Upon their return, they’ll be thankful for just one nearby rooster. Seriously, can’t folk just cultivate some acceptance of what is and some gratitude to just be waking up early.
52
I am terrified of birds. I moved from my home because wild turkeys had invaded my neighborhood. I looked for a new home where there were no chicken, turkey or goose sightings. I realize that is not always an option, but I side with the rooster in this case. Wealth should not be allowed to destroy the tradition of this island.
54
My parents bought a hobby farm when I was a teenager and a train track ran behind the property. At first the trains drove me crazy but after a while, I didn't hear them or else they just seemed comforting. People can get used to anything if they try.
54
@Agnate I grew up on the border of Boston and Brookline, MA, with a trolley line running right by my house. The racket the trains make going by the house is amazing, but like you, I got to the point where I didn't hear them at all. But it's been eight years now, and I cannot get used to the rooster crowing at 4:30 in the morning. I bought a white noise machine because of it. I think the issue is weighing priorities and importance. There are now very loud emergency flight helicopters landing all the time on the other side of those same trolley tracks. Transportation and life flights are vital and necessary. Roosters simply are not, and their crowing at unreasonable hours does not outweigh the nuisance and even health affects of people being woken up that early. I'm sure the island enjoys the tourism money, so it sounds like there needs to be some compromise here. Farm the roosters out to large farms elsewhere during the tourism season. I'd be embarrassed to be the cause of people being woken up at 4:30 in the morning.
6
@Virginia
Umm...are you talking about Brookline, or Cape Cod? I can't imagine Brookline allows roosters--I live in a close suburb to yours where residents are allowed to keep chickens but not roosters. Boston, by the way, also forbids roosters.
If they still allow roosters in Brookline, move a town or two over for heaven's sake.
3
@Virginia
People have been living near roosters for tens of thousands of years - with no ill effects. Sounds - including roosters - are part of life.
7
I live in a rural area and I watch city people buy houses, that they visit every few months for a couple of days. They leave on bright outdoor lights which eliminates the dark night sky. They bring their city light to the country, and force it on everyone.
261
@Dawn Krusi Count your lucky stars that the city people only visit every few months for a couple of days. Our night sky polluting city people moved in permanently. Turns out they are scared of the dark. Really.
15
@Dawn Krusi I live on Sanibel Island, which is famous as a nature sanctuary, 2/3 of the island is a federal nature preserve (Ding Darling).
We have a law here which is strictly enforced with fines to maintain dark skies, particularly for homes/condos/cottages on beach front. None are allowed lighting at night of a certain amount. I truly love the dark skies, so I get it!! It's because of the nesting loggerhead turtles, who get confused by the light.
I can see meteor showers, and starry skies that I haven't seen since being a girl in the southern Cali desert.
The City is considering banning gas leaf blowers, due to the air pollution and sounds, and the futility of leaf blowing (lleaves just come back).
I wish they'd ban all leaf blowers, because the island's wealthy are only in their homes for a week or two a year. Only 1/4 of the residences are full time, year round. I have no neighbors most of the time!! Even in high season, Dec-April, my wealthy neighbors are usually not in residence, except for some holidays. There were more middle class folks when we moved here in 1999, 20 yrs ago.
I love "putting up with" the ospreys who nest in my back yard squawking, the many red pileated wood peckers, the whippoorwill's lonely cry, owls, and so many many birds in my yard.
I love living here, and I hope those who read this can one day visit Sanibel. You will find it to be a unique Florida island, very old-fashioned, which I truly enjoy! No place like it!
20
@Dawn Krusi
of course! these folks come to our " quaint" towns and bring their suburban, city vibe to ruin it,,c'est la vie!
6
I find it somewhat ironic that these visitors will be dining on food with eggs and likely chicken, but don't want to be imposed on by the rooster. I guess they prefer their eggs and poultry to come from factory farms where animals suffer under horrendous conditions.
We have roosters and I enjoy their morning greetings to the sunrise. Maybe we should all rejoice and be grateful for each day. Maybe the rooster can teach us something
199
@Howard
'Maybe we should all rejoice and be grateful for each day. Maybe the rooster can teach us something.'
Splendid comment!
8
@Howard
Roosters don't lay eggs. Hens do. And hens are quiet. If the rooster teaches us anything here it's that the female is more sensible & useful than the male.
3
I'm with Maurice on this one. I live in a relatively upscale Metro Atlanta town that permits residents to have hens but not roosters. The latter are deemed too loud. This in a neighborhood where my peaceful Saturday mornings are frequently sliced short by the horrific roar of ear-shattering leaf blowers. If people really want to do something about noise, ban the blowers, and man the barricades for Maurice and his ilk. Vive le coq!
434
@John Jabo
Leaf blowers were most certainly the worst invention for morning peace. I think everyone in my neighborhood is on a rotating schedule so that there is never a nice, quiet, peaceful time.
53
@John Jabo --agreed-leaf blowers are cruel and umusual punishment!
20
@John Jabo My son and daughter in law live in Houston where they too are allowed to have hens but not roosters. For a time they also had a magnificent turkey who liked to roost on their chimney every evening. Tots spent his days quietly wandering the back yard, but as evening approached, he climbed to the roof and the chimney. If you happened to be sitting in the den, you would hear his turkey noises as he roosted on the chimney. Not as loud as a rooster, but he was still noisy in the evening, Tots went to the live in the country eventually where no one had to worry about his evening turkey noises. However, Maurice lives in the country not urban Atlanta or Houston. If you ban him, aren't we setting a bad precedent here? I moved back to my little country hometown, and I hear trains, frogs, mockingbirds, and roosters, and when calves are taken from their moms, I hear the stricken mothers crying all night. It's sad and noisy, but not once have I ever considered asking my neighbor to move his cows somewhere else! Good grief, these people give city folk a bad name!
21
I applaud the French for defending their rural heritage. But I do understand how some loud sounds can disturb one....ear plugs can be useful..
18
The idle rich are the same everywhere. Too much time, too little work.
167
Similar to wealthy who have purchased vacation homes New England, in places like Jamestown RI - and then complain about the fisherman bringing in catch, the smell of fish...
198
Imagine tourists from a foreign land complaining that the sound of the local language hurts their sensibilities and ask for people to change for their own
69
They would LOVE my neighbor who has a firewood business and runs his chainsaw from about 5-8am most mornings. Me? I live a rural lifestyle. I'm up and working at 4:30am. And, by the way, the dump trucks start accessing the gravel pit across the road at around 7am. Same for the log trucks pulling into the log-yard just down the road. Welcome to idyllic rural Vermont. This is how we live. This is how we make money so that we can live.
98
@Left out: a chainsaw starting at 5 seems over the line to me. With apologies to Ben Franklin, I bet some of the “we” you speak of would be unable to live healthy, wealthy, and wise if they were subjected to it. It’s not a virtue in itself to be up before the chainsaw.
6
My neighbors have a rooster. When I first moved here, I thought it was charming, aside from the fact that that rooster was mean as could be and would attack people all the time. I was afraid to turn a corner on my own property, as they would roam free. I even bought scratch for the hens and rooster, as at first I thought they were charming. Eight years later, I find the rooster not at all charming. Getting awoken at 4:30 in the morning by a shrieking rooster is not pleasant or quaint. It leaves me very tired during the day. In addition, I rent my house to vacationers, and a rooster waking people up at 4:30 in the morning when they're on vacation could understandably provoke a negative review, which would cost my my livelihood. I have spoken to the owners, with whom I am very friendly, and they removed the roosters in the past summers because of my concern, but this year they are holding off because of baby chicks. I am an animal lover. I even care for their animals when they travel, simply as a neighbor. But I do not believe that a crowing rooster takes precedent over people's comfort, sleep, and livelihoods. Roosters should be legal only on properties of large proportions and far from neighbors, I think. The selfish people are not the travelers here but the rooster's owner, by not caring how they are affecting others. It is not reasonable to ask people to be awoken at 4:30 in the morning.
45
@Virginia I have kept chickens. Roosters, like people, come in all varieties. Some are large, mean and aggressive, and some are small, sweet, and very beautiful. Larger breeds with large flocks tend to be aggressive. As with most things one size does not fit all.
29
@Virginia
"... I rent my house to vacationers, and a rooster waking people up at 4:30 in the morning when they're on vacation could understandably provoke a negative review..."
So you are actively profiteering while destroying your neighborhood and annoying your neighbors, by running a (no doubt non-zoned, unlicensed, and uninspected) AirB&B, and you think your neighbors should change THEIR lives so that YOU can make more money (which you are not sharing with them)??
We're actively trying to get rid of people like you in my area.
135
@Virginia buy some ear plugs. The rooster was there when you moved in.
93
As the article so accurately describes the minority trying to impose the will on the majority. We have a small farm with three roosters and 14 hens. I look forward to hearing the roosters song in the morning. To find that irritating is just petty. Move to the city and listen to the sirens and unending sounds of the traffic buzz by your home. These people do not belong in a rural or pastoral setting.
128
Yup. You can't have roosters here either. One of them actually managed to survive culling for a few months and MOST of us loved the dawn crowing. But it only takes one complaint and someone from the city arrives and...no more rooster. Very sad. Will they go after the tree frogs?
43
Exactly. I live next to the Ohio Erie Canal and in the evenings it’s a chorus of frogs singing to each other. My Australian visitors commented on it and my reply was simply: “Welcome to rural America.”
4
About the tree frogs. Someone came to the local plant nursery to see if they could buy something that would kill the tree frogs. They found them to noisey.
I look forward to the tree frog croaks. To me it is the sign of another year passing and that spring has arrived. The world would be a duller place without them.
5
One must assume that Limoges is quiet. No auto backfires or faulty mufflers, ambulance or police sirens, blasting radios, or other sounds of urban civilization.
Just peace and silence. No noise to disturb a good night's sleep.
28
You don't need a rooster to get hens' eggs. And, those little houses look too close together to have a rooster among them.
11
@Bartolo I think the hens are happier with the rooster there. It's not all about eggs. The photos of Maurice's yard seems to show plenty of room.
@Bartolo-----------------The hens might be sorrowful, don't you think?
No, but you do need them if you want hens.
Many US Cities are allowing residents a bit of a return to nature by permitting chickens (hens) on urban lots, Minneapolis among them. Roosters are usually prohibited, for the reason this town is experiencing.
8
I SO miss our chickens from the time we bought a mini ranch during our children’s preadolescence. Little Red Hen slept on the foot of one of the family bedroom beds (stained concrete floor) and hatched her eggs in the children’s upstairs bathroom. Her rooster son traveled with us to New Mexico while being treated for an unfortunate clash with a dog. I still have a scar on my lip from his attempt to spur a kitten I dared to favor over him. Surprisingly intelligent bonding animals. I could also talk about Wilbur the pot bellied pig who started out sleeping in a small basket in the family bedroom then realized he was REALLY a dog. The chickens used to roost on Wilbur’s back when he achieved hog size.
67
This is very funny. I am reading this article at 730 am after just wakening at the bed and breakfast im staying at in the middle of rural Manitoba. It is beautiful and peaceful and in the background I hear a rooster similar to maurice crowing which is so beautiful to me. When I arrived on Friday evening, the owner of the farm told me she would close the chicken coop door so that the rooster wouldn't sing first thing in the morning. I told her I didn't mind but I guess she had had people who have come for a farm experience complain!!?? I agree with the people of st.pierre. this is farm country and the noises of roosters,sheep which she has here, donkeys, cows, and horses are fast disappearing and must be preserved. What were once vibrant farming communities even in the Canadian prairies are dying off as corporations take over. PRESERVE THE ROOSTERS and all the other farm animal noises please, the world over.
143
In the interests of equity, Maurice should hire Foghorn Leghorn as his legal counsel and sue the plaintiffs for extreme emotional distress.
64
@Robert Thank you for this pleasant reminder of one of the most ridiculous Looney Tunes characters. One of his best expressions?
“Now who’s, I say who’s responsible for this unwarranted attack on my person!”
7
What i’d do for these sounds and smells where I live. Having grown up between a dairy farm and a sheep farm, the smell of animals, of manure, is pleasant. Sweet earth. Id feel more at home where I am.
Side note: sheep make amusing sounds, more varied than usually depicted. Big rams in particular.
21
@Aaron
Keep the rams fenced. They are as aggressive as bulls, and almost as dangerous. A few years ago a Missouri farm couple was killed by their ram.
The worst are those hand-raised when they were cute little lambs. They lose all their fear of people.
2
These summer visitors who come to the countryside for a vacation, only to be disturbed by the sounds of the countryside need to admit to themselves that the countryside is not for them. I have a nice quiet destination for them – NYC! Not a rooster to be heard anywhere.
67
@Lilla Victoria, very funny. When we visit NYC, we wonder how we ever lived for so long with so much noise. City noise, fine. Country noise, fine.
When you’re going deaf, as I am, you miss the ambience of both.
2
@Lilla Victoria
There are rosters. In Washington Heights!
Outrageous that outsiders who are not a regular part of a community think they have the right to dictate the terms of community life to the locals. If they can't stand life there, sell the property and move or buy earplugs. Stop making life miserable for your neighbors. All over the world, people who have money are trying to push around people who don't and destroy their way of life.
77
Re-read the article.
The Limoges couple have owned the property for years, built their own home, and Maurice was introduced by their neighbors *later*. I'm be pretty upset, too, if I bought a place for its quiet and then it became noisy!
It's almost a classic case of “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”, although in this case, the rooster came second and is an interloper!
Still, it is rural and Maurice is a well-behaved rooster, so an accommodation should be reached — perhaps moving the coop or moving Maurice's sleeping quarters elsewhere — or, a sound barrier or buying ear plugs for the Limoges couple. But forcing Maurice to move away would be a travesty!
2
Crowing is the problem but it's not from Maurice.
97
In the Voges, a mountain region, in Eastern France holiday makers complain about the cow bells. In other villages it’s the church bells. I hope they lose their case against Maurice
87
I saw that was happening in the Pyrenees! Horrible that people with second homes would complain about the distinct charm of the cow bells after they have moved there
3
I stand solidly with Maurice. Maurice is the natural world. What is wrong with these people from Limoges? If they want silence, go back to Limoges, close the windows and hide from this beautiful world.
46
In my heavily wooded, close-in-to-DC suburban neighborhood, most never open their windows, even in the most glorious weather. Probably a good thing, or they'd demand to have the screaming vixen foxes exterminated, the who-cooks-for-you Barred Owls shot, and the frogs and katydids poisoned. As it is, many are angered by the Mockingbirds and would like the county to poison every last invertebrate. Why don't these people move ot and stay in concrete highrises?
71
When I was a kid, I lived in the South Bronx next to a firehouse on Seneca Ave. There were alarms 24/7 to which the men and their equipment responded. Sirens and bells. I slept through it all. I moved to the suburbs and the blue jays woke me in the morning. Then after a short time, my brain registered “normal,”:and I sleep through the screeching blue jays.
How wimpy folks are with their demands. A brick wall to replace a hedgerow. Nuts.
95
Maurice is welcome to come vacation here in Connecticut anytime.
38
May I add that the picture that goes with the story is oddly touching? I can see a whole children's book unfolding from it. Well done, Kasia Strek.
45
@Chris I've never been a Francophile, however this picture and story encourage me to visit! But only if I get to hear Maurice.
3
@Chris Heilman You can hear Maurice from within the article. He has a lovely voice.
2
My first reaction after reading this story was one of perverse relief that France also has a class of rude, privileged interlopers who expect the locals to discard long-standing traditions and bend to their every whim. I had thought this was a uniquely American thing.
176
I'm for Maurice! For goodness sake, a rooster making his morning call in the village is now threatened. Next it'll be the cows mooing, or the lambs baa.
30
Come for the "rural ambiance" then change it into the urban chaos they are accustomed to. Sad.
33
This is a pretty standard nuisance complaint. The couple built their house around 2004. In 2017, Ms. F. built a chicken coop and put a rooster in there. Who's right? I don't know. But calls to patriotism here strike me as rabble-rousing, not legalistic.
8
Get a white noise machine or phone app. Problem solved.
14
Let the rooster be!
You can’t control nature.
15
Hands down the best story I’ve read in NYT in a year.
17
I loved this article. I favour the coq Maurice. If only we'd all defended our barnyard animals we might not have allowed the horror of industrial animal husbandry locked into a cycle of violence.
70
As the story notes this is about so much more than just a rooster.
This is about the definition of Rural Life and who gets to decide what Rural Life is. Are the people who live in the rural areas all the time going to be the one to make that decision, or are the people who visit occasionally from the cities going to be the ones who make the decision.
We've had our own battles here in the USA over this. Rich people move to the country from the big cities and try to put cattle farmers and hog farmers out of business because they don't like the smells or they don't like the sounds.
Even worse than that though and we saw it in France which brought out the yellow vests, is the idea that the people in the big cities should be able to enslave the people in the rural areas in order to subsidize their way of life in the cities.
A prime example here in America is that since I live in a rural area I have no choice but to pay the full cost of my transportation. but the people in the big cities believe they should be able to get 25% of the fuel tax money that is intended to build bridges and roads and then use that money to subsidize their public transportation so they don't have to pay the full cost. That was the Macon plan that brought the yellow vests from the rural areas into the streets in the big cities.
12
@Blank Ballot
Transportation for people in rural areas -- small town USA is a big problem. Aside from school buses and emergency vehicles, there tends to be no public transportation. Once upon a time, there was Greyhound or a train (occasionally) but no more. I am hopeful that Google cars can solve the problem of movement for those who really cannot drive -- too young, too old, an infirmity. BTW how do you want your tax dollars spent? transportation or WMDs? Tax dollars are misused in myriad ways.
I have the opposite problem: newcomers to the country who don’t understand how valuable the quiet is and the peace that it brings. They are not accustomed to it, don’t respect it and don’t understand that they’re upsetting it.
63
Yes - I don’t understand people who come out to the country and then blare music.
64
@Rose Dunn
Or camp in the mountains, or go on hikes in the woods. I was trying to identify a bird call about 3 miles from a trailhead once and started to hear 'music,' eventually revealed to be a bunch of people walking along with a boombox.
7
This is a beautiful little piece. I'm sure it's stressful for those involved...
Gorgeous place, lovely photography and a nice vignette of human conflict surrounding a rooster. Thank you.
22
I live in New York City so have to rely on my cell phone apps to wake me with the sound of roosters crowing or birds happily chirping. Not quite as good as the real thing and of course lacking the stimulating country smells but nevertheless a pleasant way to start a new day. If only I could be one of those vacationers or better yet a permanent Saint-Pierre de Oleron resident!
75
@Maria
I live in a rural town, sleep with the windows open, and wake to the sound of birds chirping on my iPhone. Or is it the phone? The phone birds and the real ones chirping in my trees every morning sound so much alike that it’s uncanny.
4
@Maria But you get to choose the time setting.
1
I'm on the side of the rooster and the fisherman. Birds sing, roosters crow and when the sun goes down the bullfrogs croak, the owls hoot- those are the sounds of rural living.
142
@Shelley Holland
And sadly, the rich complain.
6
Why is it that the Limoges folks, or other “not from around here” residents aren’t altering the storyline, “After a few groggy mornings, we finally realized we could enjoy more of the day once we learned to rise with the sun and enjoy this rural soundtrack.” This is a charming story with a disturbing undertone about intolerance: people don’t seem to be able to roll with the punches, and to stop blaming the world for their personal perceived discomfort.
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My husband and I visited Maui last winter. When we arrived at the airport, I was surprised by an unusual greeting, the crowing of a rooster! They run wild all over the island, along the side of the road, in shopping centers. My only concern was that they could be struck by a car but I never saw that happen. Humans and roosters seem to live in harmony in Maui. This couple are jerks. Clearly Maurice is more than a farm animal, he is a beloved pet to this lady. Long live Maurice!
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Unfortunately, in Hawai'i domestic chickens are an invasive species.
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@Erika
There's also another invasive, wild bird on Maui that makes all kinds of loud, somewhat aggravating noise in the early morning. He/she woke me up every morning last year during our vacation.
If I was this couple, I'd probably contact the police and file a petition with the local government entity. On the other hand, it's just a bird and a slight inconvenience - simply one of the many enjoyable surprises of a vacation.
@CDW
Here on Island of Hawaii (aka "the Big Island") which is at least as rural as Maui lots of people keep roosters. The chickens also run wild along with the Jungle Fowl which was brought in by the original Polynesian settlers. The same settlers also brought in pigs which are feral and run everywhere, making more noise than roosters, often in the middle of the night as they mate and fight. However, worse are the coqui tree frogs introduced from Puerto Rico because they can easily achieve 100+ decibel noise every night during the rainy season and many home owner associations try to force owners to suppress the frogs but to no avail. Everyone has to learn to live with the sounds of rural living or go back to the city.
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I have a small fenced yard, perfect for a few free-range hens. The council won’t let me. Trouble is that it was not written into the bill of rights (unless you count the ninth), but what could be more fundamental than a right to raise a little food on ones land? That’s the problem with enumerated rights: really simple ones were not written because they were so obvious, but are now diminished for not having been written.
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We have "Right to Farm" bylaws where live to protect farming practices from nuisance lawsuits.
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@Gerard Try to get the rules changed. Many places are now allowing chickens.
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There was a similar case, complete with law suit, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, around 2007-2009. I have no idea how it ended. (I am rooting for the rooster. It is a well-known fact that roosters cause the sun to rise; no rooster, no sun!)
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Seems to me the issue isn’t quite so simple as newcomers coming in and taking exception to what they’ve bought into.
Unless I missed something, the litigants built their house 15 years ago and Maurice arrived on the scene in 2017.
Maybe Maurice’s owner likes to think of herself as a farmer, but I think that’s with more of a wink, than what’s really going on. Kind of like people who bring their therapy pets on flights.
Oh well, glad it’s not me....
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@TLD Not quite. If you live in the countryside, you expect a countryside life, which includes the right to have animals, before or after one decides to arrive on the scene.
I live in a town. We allow people to own dogs. My neighbor bought a dog who likes to bark early in the morning. I never thought of suing to disallow dogs in my town because I hear a few barks in the AM. When we decide dogs are okay to own, we accept that people may decide to own them after we move next to them, and then we will probably hear, to quote the Beach Boys, pet sounds.
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True. But fundamentally, the case is not about the rooster. It’s about whether the rights of temporary residents should supersede the rights of permanent residents.
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@TLD Exactly! This is exactly analogous to 'emotional support' animals on airplanes. "I want my pet (dog or rooster) with me no matter how much it inconveniences other people".
So, it's not the couple who are inconsiderate, it's the woman who decided two years ago to build a chicken coop and then decided she needed a rooster. A rooster isn't necessary to get eggs.
1
This isn't just a problem in France. I've read the same sort of story set in England and America. Urban people move to the country because they want to live in the country and then complain about the country being the country. The farms and/or animals smell, the tractors and other farm equipment drive too slow on the roads, the woods are full of animals, etc. etc. Is there anything more human that this story: "yes, that is exactly what I want. Now change".
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@sjs. we loved the 'city folks' who moved to coastal Virginia and petitioned the city to prevent the watermen from going out in the early morning because the engines disturbed their sleep. They suggested the fishermen should wait until after 10 am to go out! Unfortunately, the 'come-heres' are winning everywhere.
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@sjs
Similar to NYC, where the young crowd moves in because of the great nightlife and in a few years and children start complaining about said nightlife.
C'est la vie.
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The couple from Limoges do seem to have a very cock-eyed view of what constitutes urban. I’m with Maurice.
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At the crack of dawn every day from March to Oct that it doesnt rain the neighborhood birds chirp and make noise. This noise goes on for close to 30 min. Crack of dawn is about 5:15am.
Maybe I should sue my town to have all the birds removed so I can have silence. Oh wait, I am living in the birds home. They were here long before I moved in. In all honesty, I like hearing the birds. But the analogy still applies. Hens and roosters have been in this area long before these "neighbors". If the neighbors do not like the "noise", move.
Chantez sur Maurice.
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The birds start before first-light and rarely stop before 10 am. I tried to have Mother Nature served but she doesn’t have a fixed address. What good is the human legal system if nature can do what is wants.
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@S Sandoval
Yeah, doves are making a racket out there!
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This is typical behavior of the entitled class. Everything revolves around them.
I live about 10 miles from a island that used to be a nice place for families to live. Now its an enclave of multi-million dollar second homes with a much lesser number of year round residents. In the summer when they come everything changes there.
I can well imagine the residents of LBI whining about a rooster.
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Quite remarkable. Wealthy people buy a place in the country for the rural charm and then are aghast at the fact that the same rural charm includes unwanted sounds and odors.
It’s not like someone put up a giant pig farm next to them. It’s a small flock of chickens and a rooster and a rooster’s gotta do what a rooster’s gotta do.
At any rate there’s one winner in this it’s Maurice the rooster. As the symbol of a movement it’s highly unlikely that he’s going to end up as the main ingredient in a lovely pot of coq au vin any time soon.
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@Brooklyncowgirl
Roosters are usually kept for a few years, to make sure the eggs are fertilized and will produce chickens when hens feel "like it". When a rooster gets old, i.e. less "ardent" as my grandmother would have put it, it usually ends up on the dinner table: too tough to roast, it is perfect for a "poule au riz", same as older hens who are past their egg-laying years.
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May Maurice continue to crow unabated, and may the vacationing couple realize that rural areas have noises too.
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This is such a common issue with people who reside in coastal areas. In my country home of France, "les estivants" formerly known as " les Parisiens" because they often came from the Paris and Ile de France region but now are from all over, often look down on the locals and their animals, in this case Maurice the rooster. They buy a summer home " une résidence secondaire" and they think they own the village. It's interesting how this kind of dynamic between locals and vacationers is actually universal. I live on the coast of Maine and people " from away" as they are called here will buy a summer home ( Mainers call that a camp) and find something to squabble about with their neighbors. Maine natives are not too keen on those visitors, especially when their licensed plates say Massachusetts, New York or New Jersey. Sometimes they cut too many trees and deface the coast, erect a wall on the property line, forbid beach access and demand that contractors work on their homes immediately. Since they are "from away" they think they have priority. If their Maine neighbor had a rooster like Maurice, now that would be quite a story in the local paper.
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As someone who lives in the countryside in the USA, I can sympathize. We had a neighbor who complained about our dog's barking. Apparently, our dog was bothersome while indoors or kennelled as well. He could really bark, I guess. Our neighbor moved away and our dog, sadly, died. I wonder whether our ex-neighbor still hears his nighttime barking.
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Got feel some sympathy for your neighbors, because an incessantly barking dog is a sign of a neglected/lonely/sad dog. A few barks now and then are one thing, but a dog who never shuts up needs attention and training.
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@CGatesMD - False equivalency. Barking is what some dogs do, crowing is what all roosters are.
"He could really bark, I guess.", says it all. I lived next to thoughtless "neighbors" like you who ignored their dog's incessant barking. With a bit of time and effort, dogs can and should be trained not to bark endlessly. It's a dog owners responsibility and simple courtesy to do that training.
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@Miss Anne Thrope
My dog is a sheepdog (mix of all sheepdogs), and he barks when someone arrives at our house, wether that someone is a human, a horse, a fox or a cat. I like that, after having had almost everything I owned stolen once I was away for a week, and then the thieves coming back for the few details they missed for several months after. I would see their car coming in through the driveway, and the dog would start barking and they'd turn away.
Protective dogs serve a purpose.
That said, when I'm in the city, I train him to bark less.
What can you say, Viva la France. Americans don's seem particularly attached to our vanishing connections with the natural world. So pleased the French are!
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@Jessie Henshaw With all due respect, I suspect you don't know about or have traveled much in rural America to assert that Americans don't seem particularly attached to the natural world.
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To answer the gorgeously but sadly goofy question - “Why must a rooster be arrested?” - think earplugs, not litigation, folks. Earplugs.
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I side with Maurice the rooster! I hope the people of this lovely area are able to keep their country traditions.
Jean-Louis Biron and Joëlle Andrieux should move to some city that has no care for the environment, where they will fit right in.
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Ah, people come to the country to enjoy the country, and then try to change the country... it happens here in Vermont too.
I've had chickens for years and always with a rooster. Thankfully never neighbors who took offense to them. To me, the rooster crowing is background noise. If for some reason, he crows in the middle of the night, I wake up, but only to listen for any sounds of trouble. Horns honking and people yelling outside at 1 am keeps me awake when I'm in the city, but it's the city, so what can one expect? Same here.
Regarding crowing, some roosters are more vocal than others. Maurice sounds like he's one of the more laconic ones so the neighbors should be grateful. And yes, a rooster can go off his crow if he's depressed. Here's to Maurice getting his crow back.
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@Kate I've had roosters and chickens for years too. I live in unincorporated Boulder County so I am allowed to have roosters. You can't have roosters in the city of Boulder.
My rooster is no where near the as loud as the neighbors barking dogs. No one has ever complained about my rooster, but there are often complaints in the neighborhood over dogs barking.
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I think it’s a travesty that vacationers - who are only going to be on the island for a short time - believe they have the right to tell the year-round residents how to live. It’s no different than living in the city where you have to listen to the noise of cars, buses, sirens, etc. Eventually, those noises become background noises you’re no longer aware of. The idea that one of the vacationers asked a resident to cut his hedges and put up a brick wall because the birds bothered them, is beyond ridiculous. I suppose if they lived near a fire department or police department they would ask each respective agency not to use their sirens because the noise was disturbing them. I live in a more rural setting, and I love waking up in the morning to all the different birds and the songs they sing. They’re so happy and joyous you can’t help but feel happy yourself. If they don’t like hearing Maurice crow in the morning, then they should vacation somewhere else.
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@Deborah. This is a true story. City people built a bunch of mcmansions when we were in northern Maryland. They complained about the fire siren for the volunteer fire service. Eventually, the rich folks bought all the volunteer fire members beepers and paid for the service and the siren was silenced.
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Here in New York State north of the city, this sort of thing has been a problem for some time.
Because of it, it became necessary for buyers of property to be required to sign a notice informing them that there is farming in the area, and that that entails things like sounds and smells that are different from those in the city.
To quote from the "Agricultural District Disclosure Form and Notice":
"This disclosure notice is to inform prospective residents that the property they are about to acquire lies partially or wholly within an agricultural district and that farming activities occur within the district. Such farming activities may include, but not limited to, activities that cause noise, dust and odors. Prospective residents are also informed that the location of property within an agricultural district may impact the ability to access water and/or sewer services for such property under certain circumstances."
Having signed the form, outsiders have no right to disturb the rest of the community with their absurd demands.
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I’m copying this and will submit to our county commissioners. Most city slickers buying small parcels here have no idea what farming really is.
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@A Aycock
I grew up a what was a small farming community that was slowly changing into a bedroom community for the capital city in CT, Hartford. Same sort of conflicts. The new people had fits because cows make noise and farmers start work early and tobacco trucks pulled by tractors moved slowly on the road.
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I proudly signed the Ag district Notice, and promptly built a coop for the girls.
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