Perennial story of little man with a good idea versus giant multi-national with other ideas. Norbert Coulon is a small farmer with a passion for heavy horses. As well as his herd of dairy cows he breeds Norman cobs, which he shows and rents out for weddings etc. When he heard that local authorities wanted to restore to Mont St Michel, the world famous off shore monastery, its status as an island, with no motorised traffic allowed across the straits, Norbert thought that horse-drawn caleches would meet the need as well as offering a tourist attraction.
The local council awarded the contract to manage the access to Mont St Michel to Veolia, a services conglomerate. They in turn gave a 10 year contract to M Coulon to supply and look after the horses. But last December M Coulon withdrew all the horses, claiming that Veolia had no understanding of how the animals should be treated. The caleches were too heavy, the attelages too narrow, the drivers no better than "bus drivers" and at least one horse had ended up under the carriage. Veolia claim they have addressed all the issues and all the drivers are fully trained - though a survey by the French society for horses found only 1 of the 23 drivers up to standard. "A 700 kilo mass of muscle can be dangerous if it gets out of control" M Coulon asserts.
So the stand-off continues: the council is suing Veolia for delay in implementing the service - at a penalty of 5000 euros per day - and Veolia is in turn suing M Coulon for breach of contract. The courts have been asked to decide.
M Coulon has sold his cows and invested 700,000 euros into the scheme and faces ruin because in his words he "was mad to trust Veolia - they don't live in the real world". The court is due to deliver its verdict tomorrow (30th June)
comments to taglines82@gmail.com
