The Pine of the Arsène Crossroads

In a forest of beech and oak, one conifer marks the junction. That is the job the register gives this Scots pine at the carrefour Arsene: it marks the crossroads, it stands out from the broadleaf trees around it, and it is and will remain a witness to the pine stands still present in the forest. Foresters have used single trees as waymarks for as long as there have been forest roads, and in Roumare, where every ride looks like every other ride, it earns its keep. Scots pine is easy to identify once you know where to look, and it is not the needles. The upper trunk and the big limbs go a warm orange-red that no other tree here comes close to, and in low sun the top half of this one lights up while the beeches stay grey. It is 110 to 120 years old and 75 centimetres across the foot of the trunk, about two and a third metres round down there. Take the D86 out of Montigny, park about 750 metres along at the first forest-road junction, beside the barrier rather than across it, and walk 150 metres in.