piplusone

Very many thanks to all of you who replied to my post,. Sorry I've not got back with a progress report. Embarrassingly we have tried the "head in sand approach" over the last few months as the noise problem has been dominating the quality of our lives and affecting our health. A policy of closed doors and trips out when the music got too bad worked for a while. However it's not a solution and thing have got worse. For nearly all August we’ve suffered music with that insidious base beat that invades your head and remains there long after the source has stopped - not dissimilar I suspect to tinnitus. Yesterday we were treated to 17 nonstop hours of music and metal fabrication noise. The music was eventually turned off at 02H05. I spoke to him at 00H10 but was set upon by him and another man. The other man knocked me to the floor while my neighbor kicked me. I didn’t help as I lost my temper under his immediate verbal abuse and pushed him. No real injury to any party but we’re sick of being victim’s. We’re going to start with a registered letter to the mayor. Because the noise source is an industrial unit/garage we understand the mayor is responsible for dealing with any problems. Next a "Porte Plainte" to the Gendarmes. Does anyone know if we can we send a registered letter to the Gendarmes headed “Porte Plainte” and detailing the problem as our French is not good? I’ll report back soon

Some advice on how to effectively deal with a very noisy neighbour would be much appreciated. Five years ago our neighbour built a garage and later on a house on agricultural land next to us. He has a large collection of noisy machinery and vehicles including quads. These are very noisy but we accept this. The problem is his workshop radio which he plays at full volume usually evenings, weekends and holidays plus most of August. The bass beat invades our property, our garden and our heads. Long after the radio is switched off we can hear the bass beat in our heads. Frankly it’s now affecting our health. We need to do something. I’ve spoken to him in person about the problem three times. His response on the last occasion was to “suggest that if I didn’t like the volume then I should return to the UK where I belong”. Obviously the language used was somewhat richer! On another occasion when I spoke to him he responded by sounding long blasts of the horn on his lorry at 04:00 in the morning everyday for over two weeks during July. He was starting work at 04:00 to avoid the summer heat. This Christmas holiday the radio was on from morning to evening without a break including all of Christmas day. He does not respect noise reduction during lunch times or Sunday afternoons. We don’t feel this is a problem of our integration. We did notice the when our neighbour actually lived in the village he played loud music with scant regard to the houses very close around him. We’ve heard that a number of complaints have been made to the Marie about him. It doesn’t help that we are his only near neighbour thus the only ones regularly affected by his noise. We would appreciate suggestions particularly from readers who might have experienced a similar noise problem. Thank you