The fairytale part of the Forest in Landes

Remember I told you that the pine forest is beautiful? That the Landes region is not flat? Here comes the proof! I went for a stroll in the Landes forest with my daughter Clara and her classmates. We started out next to the highway but within five minutes of walking, we were already in this fairytale land... let the pictures tell the story, even though they only show a small part of the magic of these places.

And you have to imagine the smells, the sound of the running water and the birds...

This is where we start, next to the highway a bit north of Castets.

 

But very soon the landscape changed... we started following a small creek.

 

And here is the Couyunte bridge. This old gascon name means where water meet and if you look very closely you will see that the sand on the right is whiter than the sand further up, because this is where two creeks join.

Water plants in the streaming cristalline water

Guess what animal this is?!

Small wonders to study. In this case, a snail.

See how mighty this pine tree is?

By now we are almost back in Castets. To the left we turn and cross the bridge over the highway that is north of the Castets exit. We went to the sports stadium and had picnic in the shadow of the century old cork oaks.

Castets stadium, next to the rugby ground

We were accompanied by Les Par Chemins, a trek association with mostly retired persons in great shape. It was fantastic to see how well the children and our guides got on! They had answers for all the questions about what we saw, the animals...

I'm not telling you the full story of this day full of activities, because I firstly wanted to share this secret side of Landes with you...