Tangled traditions!

Annual pollarding* of town trees in France is very traditional...
but it removes all shade from the parking areas....
this one is behind our church and is also the venue for many events.
For the parking we just have to put up with the lack of shade...
for the events, they put up tents and awnings...
in my mind, it is a tradition that could easily be done every two or three years...
but no... that wouldn't look right!

There is in the village... on the road to "le camping"...
a wonderful avenue of flowering cherries...
they do these very third year... and they have just finished!
So there will be no welcoming flowers for Easter campers this year.
They never think to do every third one each year... oh no!
That would be too logical.

The good side to the tradition is...
the contorted branches, naked but for lichen and moss, create fascinating abstracts...
or their shadows, strange patterns on the hoggin surface of the "le parking"...
now that is nice for the photographer.

* in French pollarding is "tetard"ing... in the local Touraine dialect, these wonderful trees are called "trognes"... rhymes with "crones"!!