The Millennial Yew of Yvignac-la-Tour

Fifty-eight people once stood inside this yew at the same time, a European record set in 2017. The year after, 28 musicians played a concert inside it. The trunk is that hollow: 8.5 metres round, the commune's own page calls it 'old, hollow, disembowelled', and generations of local children have used it as a playground. The town calls it millennial because, in its own words, it is simpler than arguing about the real number. One theory ties the planting to the 11th century, when a chapel on this spot became the parish church; nobody treats that as more than an educated guess. A darker local tradition, recorded separately, holds that a priest who refused to swear loyalty during the Revolution, Guillaume Gauvain, died in 1794 and lies buried beneath its roots. The tree has been failing for a while and everyone involved knows it: the commune planted a successor yew alongside it back in December 2000, insurance for the day this one finally goes. It carries the label Arbre remarquable de France regardless. The Breton word for yew, if, may be where the village's own name comes from, tree before town. It stands free behind the Eglise Saint-Malo, no restriction, near Dinan.