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This gabelle became permanent, giving rise to networks of smugglers and fomenting centuries of revolution and rebellion — even providing the central character in Balzac’s novel “Les Chouans” — until it was officially nixed in 1945.

And he said he’d hold a referendum on the new mosque, already under construction in a mainly immigrant neighborhood called La Gabelle.

On a hot day in May, a short drive from Frejus town hall, a dozen volunteer builders were hard at work on the "al Fath" mosque, which had already risen two storeys above its foundations in the middle of La Gabelle's apartment blocks.

"Everyone wants to appropriate her, and have their piece," said Orleans deputy mayor, Jean-Pierre Gabelle, "but this festival will put her back where she belongs."

The gabelle on fruit was imposed early in the year; and on many days of spring, even before the burden of the tax was felt, crowds ran beside the Viceroy's coach demanding angrily that the duty should be repealed.