Summoned to court by a neighbor inconvenienced by the smells of their creperie, a couple of restaurateurs from Erquy, in Brittany, are summoned in February to the court of Saint-Brieuc, we learned from the mayor and the interested parties on Friday.
Installed on the Brittany coast, the two restaurateurs, Alex Polge 42 years old and Marlène Dupont, 36 years old, indicated that they had received “to (their) great surprise” on January 10 the visit of a bailiff who came to see the “olfactory and sound nuisances » that a neighbor has criticized them for since they took over the creperie in December 2019.
The bailiff issued them a summons before the judge in chambers of the court of Saint-Brieuc for February 16.
At the opening of their restaurant, their neighbor whose house adjoins the creperie “had spoken of an olfactory discomfort”, explained Alex Polge to AFP.
“We had seen each other. He said “it smells like pancake”, first I thought it was rather good news and then we said “OK we will find a solution””, recalls Mr. Polge.
The couple installs a more powerful extractor and undertakes partitioning work for 17,000 euros.
In 2022, the couple received a letter from the neighbor’s lawyer who still criticized “an olfactory discomfort”, “noise nuisances, people walking on stones, children screaming”.
The couple undertakes new insulation work, for 150,000 euros, develops parking spaces to keep cars away from customers.
Neighbor and restaurateurs are then summoned for a conciliation which does not succeed.
“It’s a conflict that I am”, assures the mayor of Erquy Henri Labbé, “I went to the creperie once, I was there around 8:30 p.m. I couldn’t see any major problems.” “The neighbor asks to close the creperie in the evening at 7 p.m. But close the creperie in the evening and it’s over, ”explains Mr. Labbé.
Regarding noise, the creperie is not in question according to the elected official: the Cap d’Erquy, where it is installed, is located in a Natura 2000 zone frequented by “800,000 people per year”.
“It’s fed up, it’s like the story of Maurice the rooster” from the island of Oléron, which woke up the neighborhood and holidaymakers every morning, explains Alex Polge.
The couple who intends to plead their good faith in court launched a petition on the internet which collected more than 35,000 signatures on Friday at 6 p.m.
