T i for Trees

T is for trees

Cela fait partie du train-train quotidian — It’s all in a day’s work

We have a garden. We have trees. So far, so good. The top branches of one tree are very near an overhead electricity cable. Not so good. Last year, when we got someone in to prune the trees, he said he couldn’t cut the tree near the cable as it was ‘trop dangereux’. He — and we — should therefore ring Electricité de France (EDF) to get the power turned off for the duration of the tree pruning operation.

He rang. We rang. Nothing happened. On the day, our man pruned the other trees, went to lunch and came back with an EDF lorry in tow. He had somehow met a couple of EDF workers in the local brasserie and hijacked them. With difficulty, they backed their truck into our drive and lopped off a few branches.

This year, we thought we would get ahead of the game and rang EDF asking them to come and sort out the tree. They arrived, six hours early, and said they didn’t cut trees. But you cut it last year, we said. Non, tree cutting was not part of their portfolio. However, they reassured us that, should anyone accidentally cut through the cable, it was insulated so they wouldn’t come to any harm. No matter that the lights might go out all over St Antonin.

So, it’s back to square one. Does anyone know a good tree pruner who is not afraid of electricity cables…?