Schwarzwald

In villages in the Schwarzwald, there are sneering houses: the little window in the roof is elongated like a sly eye.

“They could have a headache or increased heart rate,” Schwarzwald said.

He was followed by Thomas Waldensphul, director of Schwarzwald National Park in Germany, where a similar forest was once decimated by human actions.

The oldest claims to be the Schwarzwald Hochstrasse - the Black Forest High Road - meandering through arboreal loveliness just east of the Rhine.

For centuries, the area, known locally as the Schwarzwald, has been the source of many of Germany’s most famous clichés: cherry-topped cakes, smoked ham and, yes, cuckoo clocks.