The Chapel-Oak of Allouville-Bellefosse

Amazing oak to get your week started: The Chapel-Oak of Allouville-Bellefosse.

... although something tells me that treatment of this tree over the years might have violated one or two of the things I learned in my Urban Forestry courses.  Apparently, when the already-500 year-old tree re-sprouted after a lightening strike/fire that hollowed it out in the late 1600s the people of the village considered it a miracle (since oaks, of course, rarely withstand fire... gah).  And proceeded to memorialize the tree's miraculous survival by... subjecting it to an incredible amount of additional abuse.  For instance I think I see an incorrect pruning cut about 1/3 of the way up on the left.  The staircase and shingles might be problematic as well.

It is cool, though.