French baker fined for sounding his horn

Paulo Païs appeared in court in France on Monday to appeal a 1,000 euros fine imposed on him for breaking the highway code and "misusing his van horn" while making his early morning rounds.

Païs runs a bakery in Nesles-la-Vallée, a village 40 kilometres north of the French capital.

He used to make an early morning round of neighbouring towns and villages in his van to deliver locals those freshly baked baguettes, croissants and pains chocolate that are so much a part of many a French breakfast table.

It's the kind tradition that still exists in hundreds of villages around the country, especially those in which there is no longer a bakery.

And to let people know he had arrived, in that time honoured convention he tooted his horn.

That was where his problems started.

Last September he had to stop his round after a couple living in a housing estate in the nearby town of Méry-sur-Oise filed a complaint because of the noise he was making when he turned up at 8.30 every morning.

The wife was a nurse who worked nights and although she "had nothing personally against the baker," the sound of his horn "prevented her from getting to sleep just as she was about to drop off."

When the case came to court in December, Païs was fined 1,000 euros for breaking Article 416-1 of the highway code in France, which stipulates that a car horn may only be used "to warn of danger".

The case caused a commotion in the town, with a petition being launched and signatures gathered to allow Païs to resume his round - horn and all.

The story was picked up by the national media after the fine was handed down, and a lawyer in the eastern French city of Strasbourg (over 500 kilometres away from the "scene of the crime") agreed to offer his services for free, which enabled Païs to appeal the original ruling.

Monday might have seen Païs have his day in court as his appeal was heard, but the consequences so far on his business have been dramatic.

"Since I stopped the round turnover has dropped and I've had to let an employee go," he said before Monday's hearing.

"What I was doing was providing a service especially to elderly people in villages without a bakery, and simply signalling my arrival just as hundreds of other bakers, greengrocers and butchers who make deliveries in such a manner do around the country," he continued.

"But apparently not everyone liked what I was doing."

While Païs will have to wait until May to discover the outcome of his appeal, the couple who filed the original complaint are considering moving as none of their neighbours is speaking to them anymore according to the wife.