What does Serge Arnaudiès think about beneath his tree? As if waiting for the answer to come from above, the septuagenarian, born in the foothills of the Pyrénées, gazes up at what he calls “the great oak.” Sparing with his words and gestures, he approaches it quietly, highlighting by contrast the tree’s impressive 20-meter height and 5.6-meter circumference. He observes its gnarled branches and the leaves that continually renew, never leaving it bare. He hardly touches the bark, as if afraid of disturbing the squirrels, birds, insects or lizards – “all the little creatures that live there” – or of damaging the fissures in its cork.
Beneath the cork oak of Mas Santol in Reynès, at the heart of Vallespir, time seems to stand still. No one knows when this tree first sprouted. Was the great oak already there in 1659, when the region of Roussillon passed from the Crown of Aragon to the Crown of France? Did it witness the local farmers’ revolt after Louis XIV reintroduced the salt tax (gabelle) in 1661? “Experts estimate it to be between 300 and 400 years old,” said Martine Arnaudiès, who is as attached as her husband to what has become a central part of their retired lives.
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