Walking the Dune du Pilat sand dune

Summary

Dune du Pilat is Europe’s tallest sand dune and, on the face of it, sounds a bit dull . . . I mean, it’s just a sand dune right?  Seen heaps of them . . . but . . . it’s actually a better experience than you’d initially think.  For one, the views from the top at 110m / 360ft are pretty impressive as you look across the various sand bars offshore and the giant spit of the Cap Ferret bending around in the distance.  Secondly, the contrast between the turquoise island paradise to the west, the evergreen forest to the east and the bright white / yellows of the sand dune are one of those sites it’s fun to gorp at for a while.  And finally, the whole walking along a giant sand dune largely on your own away from fellow tourists (see top tip below) is just cool.  Very much makes sense to be down as one of the Lonely Planet’s top highlights of France

Top tip – the vast majority of fellow tourists get to the top of the dune from the stairs that lead up from the main northern end car park, walk around a bit in that area and then head back down the stairs again to the car park.  I can see how this would be a tad underwhelming.  Instead, start to walk southwards along the top ridge of the dune – after a short time you’ll have it largely to yourself, have better views of the surrounding forest and find that walking along the ridge is far easier than the sand you’ll have been waling on before.  We walked along maybe 2/3rds of the way and then ran down the dune (which was fun) and the walked back along to the northern point of the dune via the shoreline, where we were able to walk around the dune on paths back to the carpark (you could of course just avoid this shoreline-route and walk back along the ridge if don’t fancy the longer route).  Whole walk from car park back to car park, including stopping a couple of times, took us around 2.5 hours

Extra tip – go barefoot.  Far easier on the sand