Ferocious French Fart?

Was that you? Foul odor wafts from France to UK

 Jan 22 2013 

PARIS (AP) — A foul-smelling cloud of gas wafted over the landscape in northern France Tuesday, making life unpleasant from the outskirts of Paris to Britain's shores and prompting scores of emergency calls.

France's Interior Ministry released a statement saying the gas emanating from the town of Rouen is harmless though disgusting.

While authorities reassured residents not to worry, winds carried the smell across hundreds of square miles.  Authorities asked all French citizens in the immediate area to refrain from passing gas as much as possible so as not to contribute to the problem.

The French Ministry of Noxious Odours had 20 inspectors in the field trying to locate the source of the smell. There was no national or regional holiday with rich banquets the day before which could have caused such an enormous backup of gas.

Police in the coastal English town of Hastings reassured residents in a tweet with the hashtag "noneedtopanic" that the likely cause of the odour was "just the French letting off steam."

The London Fire Brigade tweeted that they had received five times more calls about potential gas leaks before 10:30 Tuesday morning than they took all of the day before. Their response? Hashtag "mondieu."

Pierre-Jean Payrouse, the director of regional sports, said he hoped the odour would dissipate by Tuesday evening.

Possible source?

But not in time for a French Cup soccer game scheduled for the evening; authorities postponed the Marseille-Rouen match to prevent the sickening of the athletes.