French court rules rooster can keep waking up angry neighbours with his crowing

‘Today Maurice has won a battle for the whole of France’

Corinne Fesseau with Maurice, whose loud crows landed him in court accused of noise pollution (Reuters)

A cockerel has become an unlikely hero for rural France after winning the right to continue his early morning crowing.

Maurice, a four-year-old rooster, was taken to court by his disgruntled neighbours in Oléron, an island off the French Atlantic coast.

The complainants, a retired couple in their late 60s from the city of Limoges, had bought a second home on the island and were unhappy that the rooster next-door wakes them up.

They “simply want some peace and quiet when they come on holiday”, said their lawyer, Vincent Huberdeau.

Maurice’s case struck a chord with rural France, which has seen its way of life challenged by court cases against traditional noises, such as cows and church bells.

“Today Maurice has won a battle for the whole of France,” said owner Corinne Fesseau, who has lived on Oléron for 35 years and is also in her 60s.

“Why shouldn’t we have a Maurice law to protect all rural sounds?”

The rooster’s case underscores decades-long tensions in France around city dwellers who buy summer homes in the countryside without properly adjusting to rural life.

The couple’s lawyer argued that Maurice’s crowing was “noise pollution” during the hearing. “Roosters, dogs, horns, music, they are all an issue of noise,” he said.

Julien Papineau, Ms Fesseau’s lawyer, said it was not proven that Maurice’s singing was a disturbance.

The retired couple has been ordered to pay Ms Fesseau €1,000 (£900) in damages.

Mayor Christophe Sueur rallied behind the rooster in a bid to protect the rural traditions of his village, whose population rockets in summer months.

“It is the height of intolerance – you have to accept local traditions,” he told AFP.

Mr Sueur has passed a decree to preserve “the ways of life linked to the countryside, especially concerning the presence of farm animals”.

Other upcoming court cases in France deal with noise complaints against another rooster, Coco, and ducks and geese for clucking and honking too loudly.