SCOTT SIMON, Host: The mayor of a town called Sarpourenx, a village in Bordeaux, France has issued a blunt edict to townspeople; don't die. There's just no more room left in the town's cemetery. The town tried to expand the cemetery by purchasing some adjoining land, but an administrative court wouldn't permit the sale so 260 residents are left with no place to turn up their toes, if you please. Mayor Gerard Lalanne posted an ordinance in the town council office saying, quote, "All persons not having a plot in the cemetery and wishing to be buried are forbidden from dying in the parish."</s>SCOTT SIMON, Host: Reuters news agency reports that a sentence added, offenders will be severely punished. Well obviously not with the death penalty. So how do you punish postmortem Frenchmen in Bordeaux? Maybe by serving a California merlot at their funeral, wherever that is.
The mayor of a French town called Sarpourenx has issued a blunt edict: Don't die. There is no room left in the town's cemetery.