France’s most beautiful trees revealed - is one near you?
Three trees were chosen as winners with one going ahead to represent France in the European contest this February
The linden tree (left) won the jury prize, the olive tree (top right) won the ‘coup de coeur’ prize, and the willow (bottom right) won the public voteEmmanuel Boitier / magazine Terre Sauvage
France’s oldest tree has also been voted the jury’s most beautiful, in this year’s annual Tree of the Year (l’Arbre de l'Année 2023) contest results.
The Roquebrune-Cap-Martin olive tree (Olea Europaea), in the Alpes-Maritimes, has a circumference of 23.5 metres, and stretches 15 metres tall.
It is considered to be France’s oldest tree at more than 2,200 years old, and has been classified as a ‘Remarkable Tree of France (arbre remarquable)’ since 2016.
It is one of this year’s three contest winners announced on January 17, and won the ‘Coup de Coeur’ prize, awarded by the competition’s partner, environmental maintenance group L'Arbre Vert.
Emmanuel Boitier / magazine Terre Sauvage
The others winning trees were:
The public vote
A weeping beech tree in Bayeux, Calvados, which won 8,051 of the 27,555 total votes. This tree will now go on to represent France during the European final, The European Tree of the Year, in February.
This competition, as well as searching for the most beautiful trees, is also looking for “trees with the most interesting stories”.
Emmanuel Boitier / magazine Terre Sauvage
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The jury prize
A linden tree, known as le Tilleul de la Combe droit, in Lapeyrouse, Puy-de-Dôme.
Emmanuel Boitier / magazine Terre Sauvage
The trees won out from a selection of 140 entered in the competition overall. These were whittled down to a shortlist of 14 in September, and then put to the public vote between November 8 and December 18, 2023.
The jury was made up of representatives from the magazine Terre Sauvage, the Office National des Forêts, the association A.R.B.R.E.S and the LPO (the French bird protection society la Ligue de protection des oiseaux).
The judges met at the beginning of September and selected 14 candidates.
These candidates were then put to the public vote between 8 November and 18 December 2023.
The competition was created in 2011 by the magazine Terre Sauvage and the Office National des Forêts, and is designed to raise awareness of the importance of trees, their importance as part of the natural ecosystem and bird habitats, and to encourage people to go outside and notice nature.
A full list of the competition’s notable ‘Trees of France’ can be seen on an interactive map on the official website here, so you can check if any are near you (click on the screenshot below to see the full map).
Image: A screenshot of the interactive ‘trees of France’ map / l’Arbre de l’Année
