Natural wood frame for Evian

I like the way the newly trimmed plane tree frames the lakescape. In summer I never notice the bark on these trees and when they get their dramatic winter haircuts I suddenly want to touch the smoothness and admire the strange colors and tones. That's Evian, France, on the other side of the lake. The trees are in my village, St. Prex, Switzerland. The leaves are actually part of the mass of branches on the ground after the village gardeners chopped them off the trees. It takes a day for them to pick up and haul away all the leaves, which are then ground into compost and used on the flower beds around town.