favour of the costly, but less smelly alternative: a centralised, communal sewerage system.

In August last year, between a trip to Russia to resolve its dispute with Georgia and another to visit French troops in Afghanistan, Mr Sarkozy caused a sensation by turning up to an owners' meeting on the issue with his mother-in-law, Marisa Bruni.

Most of the 58 owners concerned said they were not prepared to pay for the new set-up, but Mr Sarkozy, speaking on behalf of his mother-in-law, promised that the state would come up with the required funds.

A second meeting at the Bruni-Tedeschi chateau, in the presence of the prefect, appeared to seal the deal.

However, with the summer holidays fast-approaching, the sewerage system has still not been changed. According to Jacques Huetz, who wants tokeep the septic tank system, the prefect had changed his mind on the issue. "The prefect had changed his view to one that was much more favourable to us, and clearly less under Mr Sarkozy's orders," he told the Mediapart news website.

Neither the Elysée palace nor the interior ministry were available for comment.

Last September, the former security chief of the island of Corsica was sacked after he failed to prevent nationalists peacefully occupying the holiday villa of Christian Clavier, an actor friend of the President.

In January, the top state representative and a police chief were removed from the Manche region after protesters slightly disrupted the President's visit to the area. Several opposition figures accused Mr Sarkozy of ruling France like a "monarch from another age".