name this tree

[marton]

We have a tree in our garden in the Haut Vienne, France.It is about 12 feet tall(4 metres) and been established for several years. In the summer it has large heart shaped leaves (1ft/30cm x 8in/20cm) and last autumn when it shed it's leaves it left upright clusters of what looked like brown suede textured "nuts". But now, 1st May, these "nuts" are coming into flower! Large, purple/blue trumpet shaped flowers, one from each "nut" obviously buds. One other characteristic of the tree is the branches are tubular, only visible when pruned.
Help what is this tree?

[gen2]

It sounds very much like the Foxglove Tree (Paulownia)

I'm afraid I don't know about the tubular branches as the only examples I know are in a park near where my mother lives - 500 miles away.

[gen2]

I have found it is also called the Princess Tree and there are excellent photos on this site:

http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/pato.html

They should be good enough to confirm or deny the identification.

[marton]

Thank you Gen2. That's it !!!!!