Still here.....

I now have another minor dilemna. Our neighbour - Yves - planted christmas trees all down his boundary, between the end of our garden and pool and his chestnut and asparagus field. It used to look like this:

But now it looks like this:

We are very fond of Yves, he's a fabulous neighbour, but our visitors loved the views and now there is none. So having drafted an email, with the above photos, to Martine (to translate) and Yves, we decided it was too confrontational and that I should go and talk to them. So I went up and luckily Yves was out (at an international conference on chestnut farming in Portugal. Oh yes.) So I explained the problem to Martine, emphasising that our relationship with Yves was far more important that any tree, and asking if we couldn't buy the trees at whatever price he hoped to eventually get or, failing that, and it was a boundary issue, pay for whatever fencing etc. he wanted. 

We await a response. I only hope that I haven't damaged our excellent relationship.