France has passed a law protecting the countryside’s “sensory heritage” from attempts to stifle the everyday aspects of rural life from newcomers looking for peace and quiet.

No longer will lily-livered weekending urbanites be able to complain about the smell of pigs or slurry-spreading, or indeed the thrill being jolted awake by a cockerel’s full-throated call.

All this came about because of a spate of court cases by neo-rurals outraged to discover the country could be noisy, smelly and full of stubborn hicks.

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