Where have all the trees gone?

June 5, 2012

France Probably. Fritz told me that we’re on the edge of the largest oak forest in France; some 32000 hectares and I guess this is also what Britain must have looked like some 5,000 years ago.

Once out of the Paris periphery, heading south, past  Orleans, Tours  then Bordeaux, the rolling countryside slowly but steadily  becomes greener until the forests take over.

Did French farmers require less wood for their houses, boats and cooking than their Saxon neighbours  or were they more frugal? Perhaps one of our archaeological friends can comment.

For the moment though, the sun is shining, the wine is good and I’ll leave these deliberations till another time. Obelix too would have been happy here: the wild boars are only a few hundred metres away. Guess what we shall have for dinner!

Vincent van Walt

Southwest France

You might also be interested in...

Save time, save money, save effort, get better results – use low-flow sampling…

June 1, 2023

A client recently contacted me to ask if we can repair their high flow purge pump and or sell then a new one.  They were using it for (among other applications) to purge a 70m deep bore 3 times for a...

Read More

Environmental monitoring – things can and probably will go wrong!

May 30, 2023

The chains are on, 4WD is locked in and we are well past the point of no-return. The season has not started yet but there’s enough snow already to add to the complexity of maintaining a service. We’re...

Read More

What’s in a Name?

May 15, 2023

The more mature, or should I say wiser, among us might remember the global conglomerate and British giant ICI whose fortunes were rebuilt by Sir John Harvey Jones prior to it’s takeover by rival Akzo...

Read More