Welcome Frank, good luck 
When we were having trouble with a neighbour flying overhead/very close with a powered hang glider we went to see the gendarmes who told us to first talk to the maire. The maire knew about him (we weren’t the only ones to complain) but was unaware of what he was actually doing. She went to see him and it turned out he had permission to fly but only from his own land, not the land nearby that he was using. He stopped straight away. The gendarmes did say that if it continued they would come and have a look if they would find him in the act. It didn’t come to that.
Thank you Fleur.
They do try it on don’t they!
To everyone who replied to this post, I’ve been to the police municipale who said they would come if I called them. Which is fine I guess. The Gendarmerie said the same thing (fine again) but they suggested that if I want to take measures to stop him causing the problems in the first place that I should speak to a Houssier which I did this afternoon.
The Houssier gave me some options, the simplest and cheapest at 145 euros was for me to prepare a letter explaining the whole thing, which they would then send with appropriate warnings to the owner of the property. I quite like that route because it takes away the face to face confrontation for me, and the builder will have some sort of documented action taken against him which should at least worry the owner of the property.
I’m also going to the Marie in the morning so that they’ll know about the situation and hopefully, if they can, intervene in some way.
I’m covering as many options as I can and I’m hoping he’ll regret refusing to move away from our door when I asked him to.
Incidentally, amongst other demands, the Houssier said that we can insist he cleans down our door and everything else he’s made a mess of at the end of every working day. That’ll go in my letter too.
Many thanks again.
Frank
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French Aviation law is the same as the UK:
Low flying
In general, except when necessary for take-off or landing, an aircraft should be 1,000 ft over a built-up area or otherwise 500ft from people, vehicles, vessels and structures. Note that the legislation does not mention animals.
The chair in the air would be committing a serious breach of air navigation order legislation (under EASA rules) if he was within 500 feet and he could have his licence pulled…
Stella, your Mairie sounds wonderful, but I can assure you that they are not all the same and if this work is taking place opposite the Mairie and nothing has been said, it seems as though you might just be shouting in the wind.
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No-one should be working on public property/ground… without permission… that is the minimum I would be discussing with the Mairie… what permission and what about the hazards to neighbours etc etc.
Friends in the Charente , having work done on the outside of their house… have had to give details of how public will be protected from dust and projectiles (bits and bobs)…
Hello Jane.
I should be able to find out what they’re prepared to do tomorrow.
Having been here for 7 months now we can see that not everyone is happy with the Marie but we’ll just have to see for ourselves. Fingers crossed!
The operative word is ‘should’ and sometimes, depending upon the relationship with the owner of the property and the Mairie, all does not always go as it ‘should’.
We took videos of him as proof, and he did move further away (although nearer to other houses). However, In the end, unfortunately for him, he had a nasty accident one day when caught by the wind on landing, ended up in hospital and we’ve never seen him take to the air again.
It could well be that the Mairie presume that Builder and Neighbour are OK and not realize that there is a problem between them.
I have often heard it said… along the lines of “Why didn’t you/they say something at the time”…and not just locally but in other areas. It seems that things may well be left to drift along, providing that no-one complains… so long as everyone is happy…
However, a complaint (properly supported) should be dealt with.
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What is that in measurements I understand, divide by 3 or so?
It’s about 166 yards
500ft = 152.4m
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For future conversions ft to M
https://www.google.com/search?q=feet+to+meters&rlz=1C1GCEB_enFR902FR902&oq=feet+to+m&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j6j35i39j0l5.6266j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
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1760 yards in a mile (George III said with a smile) is v handy but yards don’t actually mean a lot to me either. Why not rods poles perches or chains while we are at it.
I know a furlong is near as dammit 200m but that is it for Imperial measurements.
I do just about remember their being on the back of my exercise book when I was a very tiny child at school in Scotland.
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When I was I was last in the UK I set my satnav to mph. The trouble was when giving directions it gave distances to the next nearby turn in yards that switched to feet as you got closer. It meant nothing to me so I switched back to units I understand.
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Depends on how good you are at mental arithmetic…
Our first French car 12 years ago was only in kph and the GPS wasn’t too reliable (then) so I found this formula quite easy to use:
Divide KPH in half, then add 10% to get a quick, easy conversion to MPH
So 100 kph is 50+10 = 60 mph?
That surely can’t be right?! @graham
Oh well, on second thoughts, it is! 
I use divide kph by 8 and multiply by 5 for mph
100 ÷ 8 = 12 (and a bit) × 5 = 60 (and a bit) 
I think it might be divide mph in half… add 10% then add mph…
60mph = 96kh
60/2= 30
+10% of original 60 (6) = 36…
+original (60) = 96
(my usual thing is to divide the km by 3 then multiply the answer by 5… but that takes you over the top for something like a speed limit)
especially if you are concentrating on the maths, not on watching your speed 
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