Seasons1 of 4
The storm of 15 and 16 October 1987 tore the crown clean off this lime. It has been rebuilding one ever since, slowly and under protective care, which is the plainest evidence anyone could ask for that the tree is still working. Four hundred years is the figure the sources reach for, on the belief that it dates from the start of the seventeenth century. A competing local account makes it a liberty tree planted in 1792 or 1793, when villages across France were putting them in, which would roughly halve its age. Both sources flag these as rival stories rather than one settled date, so the honest answer is that Argoules does not know how old its lime is. What the state decided is easier to pin down. The tree was classified as a botanical natural monument in 1934, and in 2016 it was labelled Arbre remarquable de France. It stands on the open square between the Saint-Germain church and the chateau, in the Baie de Somme country, free and unfenced. The village inn is named after it, the Auberge du Gros Tilleul, which tells you how long it has been the thing people navigate by here. No girth figure has ever been published. If you bring a tape, we would like the number.
From people who stood here
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Getting there
Place du village, Argoules, Somme, France
You can recognise it by its rebuilt crown, still regrowing under care since a 1987 storm tore the original off. It stands on the open village square between the church and the chateau, opposite the Auberge du Gros Tilleul.
No station; reached by car, in the Baie de Somme area of the Somme department.
In bloom
June to July, when it flowers
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.