In brief
- At 80, tree surgeon Jean Fréon continues to watch over the wooded heritage of the royal estate of Versailles.
- Their collaboration began in the aftermath of the historic storm of 26 December 1999, which destroyed nearly 10,000 trees in the park.
- A close bond has developed between the Norman artisan and Alain Baraton, the estate’s famous head gardener.
For more than three decades, artisan Jean Fréon has worked as a tree surgeon at the château de Versailles, watching over the centuries-old trees of the royal estate. At 80, this man of the land originally from Orne still looks up to the treetops with the same fascination. His journey, inseparable from the recent history of the park, embodies a certain idea of transmission and respect for France’s botanical heritage.
A vocation born in the heart of the Norman forests
A vocation born in the heart of Normandy
Nothing destined this young Norman, little inclined to academic studies in the 1950s, to one day care for the gardens of the Sun King. It was by accompanying his stepfather into the forests that the young teenager developed a particular sensitivity to wood. This love of nature quickly found a professional extension. It was in the early 1960s, in Aube in Orne, that Jean Fréon bought his first chainsaw to found his own tree surgery business, which would gradually grow in strength.
Over the decades, his rigour and professionalism allowed him to build a small team of employees and make a respected name for himself in the tree surgery sector in Normandy. But it was a whim of the weather that would give his career a national and historic dimension, calling him to the bedside of one of France’s most beautiful monuments.
The 1999 hurricane as a historic turning point
The challenge of the historic 1999 storm
On 26 December 1999, storm Lothar swept across northern France with unprecedented violence. The park of the château de Versailles paid an extremely heavy toll: of the estate’s 200,000 trees, nearly 10,000 were uprooted, broken or weakened. Faced with this heritage disaster, the estate’s head gardener, Alain Baraton, had to organise emergency relief and called on the expertise of Jean Fréon to handle this colossal project as quickly as possible.
This meeting on the ground marked the beginning of an unwavering collaboration. Between the head gardener, whose role is to nurture life, and the tree surgeon, sometimes perceived as the one who cuts and removes, a mutual respect was established. Alain Baraton admits to having initially had youthful reservations about conceiving that a man whose job consists of cutting down trees could love them. Jean Fréon’s experience finally convinced him otherwise.
The sacred dialogue between gardener and tree surgeon
For Alain Baraton, Jean Fréon embodies the man of the soil in his noblest form. The dialogue between the two men is established on a subtle balance: where the tree surgeon speaks of “volume”, the gardener evokes “living plant life”. This difference in semantics in no way alters their shared vision for the preservation of the estate of Versailles.
An art of botanical haute couture
The tree surgeon’s work here is akin to haute couture. It is a matter of having the necessary subtlety to maintain the historic specimens in perfect condition, of daring to cut what the gardeners sometimes do not have the courage to sever, while respecting the classical aesthetics of the gardens designed by André Le Nôtre.
The tree surgeon at the château de Versailles facing new challenges
Today, the work of Jean Fréon’s teams addresses two major challenges: the safety of the millions of annual visitors and the sanitary preservation of the estate. The company’s mission is to secure the tourist route by removing dead branches from the centuries-old trees to prevent any accidents in the historic avenues.
In addition, the estate must face new biological threats, such as the proliferation of oak processionary moths. It is thanks to the technical and agile intervention of the tree surgery teams, perched at the tops of the trees in their cherry pickers, that the estate of Versailles manages to limit the impact of these pests and protect the park’s biodiversity.
At 80, Jean Fréon looks back on his journey with great humility. A man who would never have imagined working in such a prestigious setting continues to pass on his expertise to his teams, ensuring that the trees of Versailles will continue to stand the test of time.
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