Dune of Pilat

At the edge of Arcachon Bay, the forest simply stops and Europe’s highest dune takes over. Dune du Pilat rises to roughly 100 metres, with Atlantic water and the Banc d’Arguin on one side and an apparently endless carpet of Landes pines on the other. Climbing it is part workout, part geography lesson, especially when the sand begins filling your shoes.

Its architecture is entirely natural and still evolving. Wind pushes the dune inland by roughly one to five metres each year, gradually swallowing the forest behind it. Yet this restless giant is surprisingly young in its present form, taking shape largely from the nineteenth century onwards. Look closely at its exposed face and darker horizontal bands reveal something older: buried soils preserving thousands of years of environmental history.

Archaeologists have even uncovered traces of prehistoric habitation, pottery and ancient salt production within the sand. Later layers contain oyster shells, ceramics and coins, evidence that people were enjoying the Arcachon coast long before beach clubs entered the equation.

Even wartime concrete has struggled with the landscape. German bunkers once positioned on the dune now sit displaced along the shore as erosion continues reshaping the coast. Pilat feels monumental on arrival, but its real fascination comes from discovering that almost nothing here stays where it was.