At least noise is a form of pollution which does not affect the ozone layer – but it is something to be seriously considered if you are thinking of buying a house in France.
The most common cause of complaints about noise in France is the barking of dogs. The French claim to love dogs and from the huge piles of evidence left on the streets this seems to be true, but apart from releasing their pet pooches to contaminate the environment, the concept of exercise and walking their dogs is usually confined to driving to the nearest unpolluted corner with the dog in the back, stopping for ten minutes while their “pet” runs around the car, and then driving home.
This makes for frustrated and antisocial behavior (for the dogs as well). Most dogs I have seen are simply chained or penned in a small garden or enclosure and they bark at any disturbance.
So, they bark – and bark – and bark, at any minuscule infringement of their “territory”.
This is not a gentle woof woof, but usually a manic yowling and screaming fit for any movie about werewolves. We live less than 100 meters from open countryside, but whichever way we take with our dogs we run the gauntlet of yards and gardens with hounds of Baskerville proportions and vocal chords fit to demolish Jericho. This sets off a chain reaction of imprisoned dogs from surrounding gardens and soon we can hear a “tom tom” effect of responses from gardens which must be many kilometers from the casual promenade we are attempting.
Privacy is valued very highly in France, interfering with the rights of a neighbour is taken very seriously by the authorities, the Gendarmerie and the Mayors offices, so complaining about noise is not something which usually gets results.
Here is a typical request I was asked to advise on recently…
>>>I would appreciate any advice.
The situation is this – we have new neighbours. In the field that is adjacent to our garden they have constructed a motor cross circuit.
Recently a meeting was held in which numerous quads and motocross bikes roared around the field.
This situation was repeated, so it looks as though we have a monthly meeting.
You can imagine the noise about 50 metres from my front door.
Surely there must be some sort of planning involved even if they say it is for private use.
Change of use ?
This is an area of habitation, there are only nine other houses in our village. One of which adjoins the other side of field in question.
At least three meetings with the Mayor have not produced a solution. I even called the Gendarmerie, but their reaction was that it was “correct”. <<<
I am afraid my reply was not much help – I never got a response, what I could find out was…
>>>Neighbours seem to be able to do many things on agricultural land without any formal planning – keeping hunting dogs on adjacent land is a real pest for some of our friends – not only are French dogs capable of creating more dog poo than anywhere else in the world but they have lungs and vocal chords which seem to need constant exercise, often from ramshackle sheds a few yards from a boundary.
Motocross is very popular and I think as long as it is a “temporary” circuit anyone can hold a meeting at any time on their own land – there certainly are not the same laws of nuisance or noise as in the UK .
All I could find on the subject about noise nuisance in France in a quick search was this comment in a forum
…three main levels of noise qualify as criminal conduct: one occurrence and very loud; repeatedly occurring and somewhat loud; and continuous and not loud …
I doubt it is an army (Gendarme) issue and getting a lawyer is likely to take a lot of time and money – if the Mayor is condoning this moving may be the only solution.<<<
So, if you are coming to live in France then be sure to buy a big motorbike and a big dog so you will fit in unobtrusively with the neighbours.