| Travelling south from Bordeaux by road or rail, you pass for what seems like hours through an unremitting, flat, sandy pine forest known as Les Landes. Until the nineteenth century it was a vast, infertile swamp, badly drained because of the impermeable layer of grit deposited by the glaciers of the quaternary age and steadily encroached upon by the shifting sand dunes of the coast. Today it supports nearly 10,000 square kilometres of trees and since 1970 has been designated a parc naturel régional. At SABRES, 18km east of Labouheyre on the Bordeaux–Bayonne road, you can take a restored steam train to the excellent Écomusée de Marquèze (trains depart April & May Mon–Sat 2–4/4.40pm, Sun 10am–4.40pm; June–Sept daily 10am–4.40/5.20pm; Oct Mon–Fri 2.40pm only, Sat 2–4.40pm, Sun 10.10am–4.40pm; €7.32 including entrance), set up by the park authorities to illustrate the traditional landais way of life, when shepherds used to clomp around the scrub on long stilts.
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