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| Vive Maurice! |
Maurice has become a symbol of the resistance of country people to gentrification of rural areas by the "neoruraux" incomer retirees and second home owners from urban France.
Earlier this year a neighbour of Mme. Corrinne Fesseau complained to the authorities that her cockerel, "Maurice" was a nuisance because his early morning crowing disturbed the peace of the village.
Mme. Fesseau defended Maurice on the grounds that in French law it would be necessary to prove that Maurice was a nuisance and this was not done. The villagers and neighbours enjoyed Maurice's morning song and he received letters of support from all over France. Further she saw this as an attack on the rural way of life in France. What would be next? church bells? frogs?
Here in Kilchoan I have five cockerels who all sing in the morning and there have been no complaints but in rural southern England where areas such as the Cotswolds have been taken over by wealthy incomers it is against the law to keep a cockerel. This is further evidence of the English countryside rapidly becoming a large suburban park and luxury housing complex.
Vive la France!......... Vive Maurice!. For a full report of the proceedings see todays Le Monde
19/06/20 Maurice est morts
The Guardian newspaper announced today that Maurice, aged 6 years has died of Coryza a respiratory infection of poultry .https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/19/maurice-the-noisey-french-rooster-dies-aged-six
The same phenomenon is playing out in Ontario, Canada, where much of the countryside is dotted with the relatively oppulent country estates of the affluent, and agricultural land is being consumed by the urban at an alarming rate. Large corporate farms produce most of the agricultural products grown in Canada, but most of our food comes from other countries, China in particular. Locally grown food is now "artisanal" and beyond the reach of most of the working population. Sad degeneration but the young don't seem to know that things have changed.
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