"There was no proof of any kind of illicit or abnormal trouble," added her lawyer Philippe Lalanne. He said that the judge had ordered an acoustic audit to test noise levels which would be carried out in the first quarter of next year. The case is one of several that have been cast as an attack on the rights of church bells to ring, cows to moo, and donkeys to bray throughout rural France. The symbol of this battle between urban and rural France emerged as a rooster named Maurice, whose early-morning crowing so annoyed his neighbours on the island of Oleron that they took his owner to court. The court in early September upheld the bird's right to start the day with a cheery cock-a-doodle-doo, in what was seen as a triumph for the traditions of rural France.

Source: The Local November 20, 2019 10:07 UTC