Photo : Larrousiney sur Wikipédia français / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
La Dune du Pilat
The Dune du Pilat, at Pyla-sur-Mer in the commune of La Teste-de-Buch, marks the south entrance of Arcachon Bay, on the Silver Coast. It is regarded as the tallest dune in Europe: about 103.6 m in the 2023 measurement, about 616 m wide and 2.9 km long, or some 55 million cubic metres of sand. Its name is said to come from the Gascon "pilàt", meaning a heap. The sand comes from the Banc d'Arguin, which the wind pushes onto the dune, which slowly advances inland and every year buries trees of the neighbouring forest.
A listed site since 1943 and protected over nearly 6,900 hectares, the dune welcomes about two million visitors a year. You climb it on foot, by a one-way staircase of 170 steps, or directly in the sand. From the summit, the view stretches over the bay, the Banc d'Arguin, the ocean and the Landes forest. Paragliding is also practised there.
