Photo : Paternel 1 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Lac de Lacanau
Lying in the commune of Lacanau, in the Landes du Médoc, the Lac de Lacanau covers nearly 2,000 hectares and is one of the great Landes lakes. Through the Canal des Étangs it connects to the Lac d'Hourtin et de Carcans to the north and to the Arcachon basin to the south. In ancient times the Médoc lakes drained into the ocean, until sand carried by the currents gradually blocked their outlets.
The digging of the Canal des Étangs, between 1859 and 1871, lowered the water to its present level; the maximum depth is 7 metres. During the First World War the Americans set up a seaplane base on its shores. Today the shores are equipped for sailing, windsurfing, canoeing, walking and fishing, and a biological reserve protects the wetlands of the eastern bank.
