Photo : jacme31 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Forêt des Landes
The Landes de Gascogne forest, with nearly a million hectares of maritime pines, is the largest cultivated forest in Europe. It forms a vast triangle bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, whose corners are roughly marked by the Pointe de Grave in the north, Hossegor in the south and Nérac in the east, covering the départements of Gironde, Landes and Lot-et-Garonne.
Its planting, begun in the eighteenth century and generalised after a law of 1857, aimed to stop the advance of the shifting sand dunes and drain marshy soils unsuitable for agriculture, the maritime pine being particularly water-absorbent. Today, the forest-wood-paper industry generates economic activity comparable to that of aeronautics or wine in the region, with an average production of 4.1 million cubic metres of wood a year.
Beyond its economic role, the forest offers an immense terrain for hiking, cycling and horse riding, among shaded cycle paths, ponds and lagoons, with the Marquèze ecomuseum at Sabres to discover the traditional way of life of the Landes shepherds before the great afforestation.
