Getting the chop

Last week our local arboriste, Alain Benn, came to lop two tall Chestnut trees (Marronniers) and an equally tall Plain tree (Platane) in the courtyard at the back of the house. Their leaves had been falling on the tiled roofs of our dependences. They had been clogging up the gutters of an adjoining cottage and a row of stables. In the winter months the courtyard itself was thick with fallen leaves which constantly had to be raked up and burnt.

The taller of the two chestnut trees is over 30 metres (100 feet) but Alain was up in the top branches with his chainsaw as quick a squirrel. Tied round his waste were a series of ropes and tackle on a harness similar to that of a mountaineer. He showed me a special knot he tied designed by an Austrian climber called a Prussick which enabled him to winch himself 20 ft up into the branches of the chestnut without having to scale the trunk itself. He used a led weight like a plumb line to throw a safety rope over branches above him.

Fortunately it was a beautiful, sunny day so Alain was able to happily get on with what appeared to be an extremely precarious task. He could, he said, have done the job if it had been raining unpleasant though it might have been. High winds, he said, were what presented real safety problems with swaying trees increasing the chances of losing his footing and the danger of falling branches being blown off course.

After a day in the three trees Alain had totally changed the look of our property. He cut the plain tree back severely because many of its branches were diseased and the chestnut trees had also received his full attention. The result was that we were now able to see the attractive stone features of the cottage that bordered one side of the courtyard. Overhanging branches had previously hidden much of the sloping, tiled Perigordine roof and its beautiful limestone walls. The courtyard and the main house had also become much lighter

Instead of paying him to take all the dead branches and wood away we asked Alain to cut the wood to a suitable size for burning in our open fires and we now have enough logs and kindling for the whole of the coming winter. The remains we burnt on a huge bonfire.

When we bought Maison Mayets last year these trees were subject to a bizarre clause in the Act de Vente. They were still owned by the commune the vendor’s Notaries informed us and we were required to enter into another contract to be able to buy them at an extra cost. But when later I asked the Mayor of St Perdoux if he could arrange to have them lopped, he told me that they belonged to me. Ask no questions as they say!