THE
SURVEY AREA
The exploration
is being carried out in several parts of the French department of Val
d'Oise (20 to 40 km north of Paris), chiefly in the areas named "Plaine
de France" and "Vallée de Chauvry".
The fruit trees much likely to be
found are pear trees and apple trees. Stone fruits are located in the "Vallée de
Montmorency".
Fully (+) or partially
(-) explored villages:
Plaine de France: Mareil (+), Belloy (-), Ezanville (-), Le Mesnil-Aubry
(-), Châtenay (-), Epinay-Champlâtreux (-), Fontenay (-).
Vallée de Chauvry: Baillet (+), Chauvry (+), Béthemont
(+), Villiers-Adam (+).
Others : Montsoult (+), Maffliers (+), Nerville (+), Saint-Martin
(-), Viarmes (-) Domont (+), Piscop (+), Sarcelles (-), Saint-Brice,
Saint-Prix, Jagny (-), Gascourt (-), Bellefontaine (-).
To which is to be added, outside the area but still in the Val d'Oise,
the village of Epiais-Rhus,
in which a full inventory of the fruit heritage was made in the year
2002.
WHERE ARE THE OLD FRUIT VARIETIES TO BE
FOUND ?
Where the old trees are, i.e.:
1. in old traditional orchards
The oldest orchards are the pear-trees orchards. These trees can live
for more than 100 years. The apple-trees orchards are hardly ever more
than 80 years old.
2. along the roads, paths, trails, etc.
There are almost exclusively pear-trees.
3. in gardens
This is where the highest probability is of founding old apple-trees,
because they have often been looked after by their owners (removing
mistletoe, for instance).
REMARKABLE TREES
The biggest pear-tree found is 3.50 m in circumference. It is located in Pontpoint (Oise) and the pears are called "Couillard" by its owner.
The biggest pear-tree of la Plaine de France is 3.40 m in circumference. It is located in Fontenay.
The biggest pear-tree of Mareil
is 3.20 m in circumference . It has no visible graft point. It is the most beautiful of all.
The biggest grafted
pear-tree of la Vallée de Chauvry is 3 m in circumference. It bears fruits
of a variety resembling "Poire
d'Angleterre".
The biggest apple-tree discovered until now has a circumference of 2.15
m. It is not a grafted tree. It is located
in the L'Isle-Adam Forest.
The biggest grafted apple-tree discovered has a circumference of 1.90
m.
FRUIT TREES
ENEMIES
Apart from urbanization, building of roads and reparcelling of lands,
the enemies of the fruit trees are, in order :
1. horses,
who eat trees bark and so kill all the fruit trees growing in their
fields. At present, they are the first to be blamed for the disappearing
of the old fruit trees from the region.
2. mistletoe, which can destroy an apple orchard in less
than 10 years. (It does not infect pear-trees.)