Rooster Festival in Saint-André-de-Valborgne: Celebrating Rurality and the Rural Traditions of Gard

This Sunday was the rooster festival in Saint-André-de-Valborgne in the Gard. An event born after a dispute with Parisian tourists who had complained to the mayor about the noises of the countryside. Today, the municipality defends rurality tooth and nail.

They have become the emblem of the village: the rooster and its crow. A party was given in their honor this Sunday, August 6, 2023 in Saint-André-de-Valborgne, a small village in Gard populated by 361 inhabitants in 2020 according to INSEE.

Four years ago, “parisian tourists” had complained to the mayor in front of the village fountain: “Two people told me: Mr. Mayor, the sound of water, the ringing bells, the rooster crowing… All that bothers us”, remembers Régis Bourrely. Only here, the city councilor, great defender of rurality, is attached to the particularities of his village.

Now at the entrance to the town, a sign humorously warns city dwellers of the risks involved: “bell towers that ring regularly, roosters that crow very early, herds that live nearby…” Not for to scare away tourists, defends the mayor, quite the contrary. But to warn them that they are entering the rural world and that it has some characteristics that the chosen one wishes to preserve.

A sign warns tourists of the rural specificities of Saint-André-de-Valborgne in the Gard. • © F3 Occitanie

And every year for the past four years, a party has been organized in honor of the rooster, now the symbol of the village just like its crowing. On the stands this weekend, local products: cheeses and charcuterie, but also rabbits, hens and the star of the day, the Gard rooster, a breed created in 2006.

“It is a Mediterranean-type race, that is to say that we have white mumps, a simple crest and a black dominance”, explains Jack Fountain, the secretary of the Gard poultry club. To differentiate it from other Mediterranean breeds, it is on its coppery back that it is necessary to linger, specifies the specialist.

The atmosphere of this market of yesteryear awakens the memories of the most nostalgic: “In the villages of the Cévennes, it’s lost. Finding the barnyard and the poultry here is extremely pleasant”rejoices a visitor. “It’s very important because it’s getting lost in a lot of places.abounds a passerby. As long as we can preserve it, we must do so!”

Here, the rural identity is a source of pride, transmitted from generation to generation. “It’s the traditions of the region, it’s the traditions of the country. And then we have animals, we’ve always had animals for 3,000 years, there’s no reason not to continue to raise.”

In France, a law protects “sounds and smells” as characteristics of natural spaces. Promulgated in January 2021it aims to avoid rural conflicts around the crowing of roosters or cicadas, the sound of church bells or around the necks of cows, or the smell of horse dung…