...French senators unanimously passed a law to protect the "sensory heritage" of the French countryside, including its sounds and smells, France 24 reported via the Agence France Presse. That means sounds, including those from cow bells, grasshoppers, and even tractors doing their work in the early mornings, as well as the smells they may generate, won't be able to be challenged in the courts. "These sounds and smells are now part of the common heritage of the nation," the bill stated.
— France says if you don't like the smell of cows, don't move to the countryside. Read more in France Passes Law to Preserve the Sounds and Smells of the Countryside at Travel + Leisure. Hat tip to Calypso!
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I love this. Visitors and vacationers often forget there are full-time residents working around them. You can’t handle that, go to a contained resort for your rest and relaxation.
I do too!
But I think this is more about people from the city moving to the country, rather than tourists. This sort of conflict happens even near me, in the parts of my county that still have working farms.
Yes. Always surprising to me when people move somewhere and then want to change the place.
In our first apartment in NYC, we lived below a neighbor who seemed to clomp around in work boots and drag things across the floor. No rugs. We got to know him. A working artist with a paint cart. Since he became a friend, the noises from his apartment simply came to sound like family upstairs in a two-bedroom house. Familiar white noise.
Ugh, this is so French.
Ha, it is a very French answer to what I would have thought of as a more American problem (people suing their neighbors over normal life).
I wish they would accord the same respect to the French “sensory heritage” of classic perfumes, and allow the issuance of legendary French fragrances with the original formulas, for those who don’t suffer from allergies and want to buy those. Maybe with appropriate warning labels. Of course, companies like LVMH would also have to want to do that. Now I think they hide behind IFRA restrictions when convenient, though I do believe the restrictions themselves are mostly well-intended.