Note the size of people on the crest. |
You have to see it to believe it. The photos do not do it justice—no matter the
distance or the perspective. La Dune du
Pyla is 2,700 meters long by 500 meters wide and 117 meters high (about 1.8
miles by .33 of a mile and 500 feet high)—a mountain of beach sand. Formed by the actions of the sea’s currents
combined with the wind, it moves into the forest by three to five meters every
year. There are none higher in Europe.
The Dune sits at the mouth of the enormous Bassin d’Arcachon—about
50 miles southwest of Bordeaux, about 150 miles north of Biarritz (just above
the southwest corner of France). After
lunch in Arcachon looking out to the Bay, we drove through residential
neighborhoods to La Dune. The approach from the parking lot passes a few shops
selling lots of kitsch and the obligatory postcards and meanders through the
pines. The path isn’t long, and at this
time of year, it’s free of the summer crowds.
Sand moving into the forest |
I walked out of the woods into the sand and to the base of a
very long set of steps. From this
perspective—even before I put my foot on the first step—it was hard to
comprehend the size of the dune. It’s
absolutely massive and unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. The walk up the steps isn’t a piece of cake,
but it’s manageable given the occasional platform. It’s hard not to stop and gawk along the way. At the base of the dune on one side, the
forest is being slowly swallowed by the sand.
The trees remaining from prior years’ encroachment sit gray and dead. Soon the green and living trees farther down
will suffer the same fate.
Sand brushed off at the top |
At the top of the steps were three women waiting to
descend—one well into her 70s and looking as though she could have had a few
more carrots and a little less velouté sauce with her lunch. Sand had blown over the steps making passage down
a little risky and certainly more difficult than if the steps were clean. One of the woman’s companions brushed the
sand off the steps one after another to ease the passage down. How she even made it to the top is beyond me;
but we didn’t stand to watch the descent.
The top in the distance |
When we reached the top, we walked farther up the sand to
the crest of the first dune. The highest
point is far in the distance, and we felt no obligation to go that far. We stood on the crest looking on one side into
the distance high above the forest canopy.
On the other side of the dune lies the Bassin d’Arcachon and the
Atlantic Ocean.
This is one of those places where I can imagine the feelings
by visitors to the Taj Mahal and can remember my own visit to the Grand
Canyon. There’s a sense of disbelief
that something could be so massive paired with a wonder that touches your
soul.
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