Stop killing the plane trees!

Like many villages in the south of France ours has avenues of plane trees lining the roads leading into the village. They look beautiful and they have a practical purpose - providing shade in the summer. The mayor and the municipal council have a (not universally popular) plan to build about 100 new houses at the northern edge of the village and a roundabout to make access to these houses safer. At a public meeting to discuss the plans we were told that about 4 or 5 plane trees would have to be felled to make space for the roundabout but that the others would remain.

Last week workmen began to cut down more than 4 or 5 trees. By the time people arrived to protest 19 had been felled. A demonstration by inhabitants managed to halt the needless destruction of these beautiful old trees ... for the moment.

Signs stapled to the trees read: 'Don't touch my plane tree' and 'I am more than a 100 years old - don't cut me down!' Others call for a referendum - whether on the tree cutting or on the whole project isn't clear at the moment.

At the side of the road are sad piles of healthy tree trunks.