Three large frogs are facing eviction from a pond in France over complaints about noise.

In the village of Frontenex, in the Savoie region of the northern Alps, police have been called about the batrachians.

Officers turned up to the home of Colette Ferry informing her that they would be removing the animals that were enjoying her pond.

Bent over her cane, the 92-year-old described the sound coming from the garden as ‘bucolic’.

‘There are three frogs. They come and go in the water with my fish. I did not think that the gendarmes would move for that,’ she told Le Parisien.

Police told her they were responding to a neighbour complaint after being unable to sleep because of the loud croaking.

Ms Ferry told them she did not actually own the frogs, but that they had moved in her pond.

She said: ‘I built this pool in 1975 and, of course, frogs quickly settled there. I had never had a problem with my neighbors until now.

‘Before, they did not bother anyone. I have lived alone since my husband died 20 years ago, so this is my distraction. These frogs bring life.’

Her granddaughter Marianne told the newspaper that when officers had come in 2019 to discuss the problem, she had taken a month to recover.

Those who have lived in the neighbourhood for years claim the croaking lasts for months, longer than the mating season.

Villager Boumedienne Benmerrouche described the noise as ‘hellish’, insisting his family cannot continue to live like this.

‘I get up early for work, my children also for high school, and we can’t sleep when it’s a little hot and we have to open the windows to breathe,’ he added.

‘Ms Ferry is a little hard of hearing, she is not necessarily sensitive to it. We don’t want to go to court for that, it would be grotesque.’

In 2019, rural France saw a spate of high-profile court appearances involving noisy animals. 

Metro.co.uk reported on a rooster called Maurice who has won his court battle against neighbours who thought he was too loud.

Sadly, the bird died a year later, but the case continues to be seen as a symbol of tensions between those from France’s rural population and city-dwellers who own second homes, but who are not as accustomed to the smells and sounds of the countryside.

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