The unusual case reported by the Guardian took place in the small town of Frontenex at the foot of the northern part of the Alps. The main role in it is played by a senior woman, her sleepless neighbor, two gendarmes and three frogs.
“A man came up to me and started screaming that he couldn’t sleep at night and had to go to work,” Ferry described. The reason was the frogs that the Ferrys had settled in the garden pond, where they keep several ornamental fish.
A few days later, two gendarmes knocked on Ferry’s door. They say they came to investigate a complaint about too noisy frogs, because of which the neighbor can’t sleep. Ferry told them that the fish in the pond were hers, but the frogs came by themselves. “They climb into the water and play with my fish. It’s my pastime,” the senior told a local radio station.
A senior woman is looking forward to catching frogs. They say it will be fun
“So I didn’t expect the gendarmes. Especially because of the frogs,” added Ferryová, who is enjoying the hype surrounding the three frogs. And he expects to have even more fun when the gendarmes send someone to catch the frogs. “It’s going to be fun… they’re going to jump quite a bit,” said the amused senior.
The battle over the frogs in the pond is the latest chapter in a dispute that has been raging across the French countryside for several years. Mostly immigrants from cities complain in droves about animal sounds or the noise made by church bells. Because of the natural sounds of the countryside, they don’t even hesitate to file lawsuits.
But the courts stand up for the countryside. Probably the most famous case is Maurice the rooster from the town of Rochefort. Neighbors took his owner to court in 2019 because of his noisy barking, but they lost. Maurice, for whose “liberation” petitions were signed, could continue to croak until his death in 2020.
The most famous French rooster crowed
Cocktail
