Dogs barking could cost owners €68 in rural village

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Councillors introduce bylaw to keep the peaceA local bylaw to silence dog’s barking has provoked outrage in rural Oise.The 19 elected officials of Feuquières, a village of 1,500 inhabitants, voted to introduce a decree banning dog owners from leaving their animals to bark for long periods of time, or risk a €68 fine for every offence.

The vote was prompted by a petition from residents complaining about one person in the village, who owns a number of animals. But attempts at conciliation failed, prompting councillors to take the rather drastic step of issuing a decree that would allow them to fine dog owners who leave their pets alone outside all day.

The bylaw says that it is forbidden, to leave a dog in its enclosure without its guardian being able to stop its prolonged or repeated barking at any time. Any dogs whose behaviour ‘disrupts the rest or relaxation of people’ must be kept inside.

But president of the association Pour la défense des droits des animaux, Stéphane Lamart said: “It’s completely amazing. You might as well stop church bells from ringing on Sunday morning. Dogs have a mouth, it’s for barking. People are very happy when they give the alert in case of a burglary.”

Mr Lamart has demanded a copy of the bylaw in order to take legal advice, and maybe contest it in the courts.

It is not the first time, an animal-related bylaw has caused controversy in Feuquières. In 2017, a local law banning people from feeding stray cats was scrapped as it ran counter to animal protection laws.

Source: Dogs barking could cost owners €68 in rural village

Pas de Merde Film Fav: “The Kid With the Bike”

The Kid With the Bike (2011)

Abandoned by his father, a young boy is left in a state-run youth farm. In a random act of kindness, the town hair-dresser agrees to foster him on week-ends.
Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Writers: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Stars: Thomas Doret, Cécile de France, Jérémie Renier

Watch this via Amazon

Le gamin au vélo (2011)
Image result for Cécile de France The Boy with the bike
Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne and Cecile De France 

France Maintains its Wine Crown

Paris sunset
Paris sunset

A Wine-Searcher presentation in Paris has good news for French exporters. Read the latest wine news & features on wine-searcher

Data from Wine-Searcher’s comprehensive database presented at the Wine Paris exhibition in France last night showed that rumours of French wine’s demise at the hands of New World competitors are greatly exaggerated, advertising and key accounts manager Nicholas Oakes told his audience of mostly French wine professionals.

In the 12 months to January 31, 2019, French wines accounted for 31 percent of all 4,179,908 bottle-size wine offers listed on Wine-Searcher, a number that has remained remarkably steady across the past five years. Of the more than 156 million wine searches made by users in the same time frame, almost 75m, or 48 percent, were looking for French wines.

The largest market for French wine is the US; this is a result of Wine-Searcher listing more offers from the US than from anywhere else. Despite the level of loyalty to the domestic industry in the US, French wines account for 426,537 offers, or 22 percent of the total listed in the US. By comparison, its next market is its home country, where there are relatively few offers – 212,271 – but French listings make up 92 percent of the total. The next largest markets in terms of wines on offer are Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland. [ . . . ]

Read More at WINE SEARCHER : France Maintains its Wine Crown | Wine-Searcher News & Features

French priest files to delay release of sex abuse victim film premiering in Berlin 

The French release of a film based on real-life cases of sex abuse allegedly committed by a French priest, which is being premiered Friday at the Berlin film festival, could be delayed. Lawyers for the priest in question, who is accused of molesting more than 80 boys, say the film should not be shown until after his trial later this year.

Director Francois Ozon’s film By The Grace Of God tells the story of a group of survivors of abuse at the hands of Lyon-based priest, Bernard Preyant. Ozon worked in secret with several members of a survivor’s group that has gathered testimony of dozens of people who claim to have been abused by Preynat in Lyon.

Preynat is to be tried on sexual violence charges involving ten children. The allegations came out after a former scout, Francois Devaux went public in 2015 with allegations that the priest had abused him as a child 25 years earlier.

Preynat was suspended by the church later in 2015, and it later emerged that Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, had confronted him about the allegations five years earlier, and later went to the Vatican, but never contacted law enforcement authorities.

Barbarin and five other church officials and members are waiting for a verdict on charges of covering up the abuse and failing to protect children.