英譯漢
French urbanites fuss about rustic noisesand smells
Some second-home owners have sued over loudlivestock and church bells
France’s sense of itself has long beenrooted in the land, even though three-quarters of French people live in towns.Now, however, having locked down in small airless spaces, many city-dwellersfeel the call of the wild. Estate agents report an uptick in searches for homeswith gardens.
Diehard urbanites talk wistfully of abucolic existence in la France profonde. In a poll, 61% of the French thinkconfinement will encourage people to move to the country or buy a second home.But do today’s townsfolk know what rural life really entails?
The question arose late last year, whenPierre Morel-À-L’Huissier, a deputy from the Lozère, a remote rural area,introduced a bill to protect France’s “sensory heritage”.
By this, he meant “the crowing of thecockerel, the noise of cicadas, the odour of manure”, and other rural soundsand smells. Some of his fellow citizens, it turned out, had judged theseintrusions into their romanticised idyll a form of intolerable pollution.
Last year second-home owners on the Iled’Oléron, off the west coast, brought a case against a cockerel for crowing tooearly. The court ruled against them, rescuing Maurice, the unfortunate bird,from banishment or worse.
In Soustons, in the south-west, a case wasbrought against the owner of 50 ducks and geese which made a din. Near thePyrenees, a new resident in Foix filed a complaint against the village becausethe church bells were too noisy.
Rural people are pushing back against thisnonsense. The mayor of Saint-André-de-Valborgne, in southern France, has put upa sign outside his village warning visitors that they are entering a risk zone.Church bells ring often. Tractors make a racket. All because “farmers areworking to give you what you eat.”
These noises are “not a nuisance butintrinsic and authentic characteristics” of rural life, said MrMorel-À-L’Huissier. And on its first reading, the National Assembly unanimouslybacked his bill.
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