After much history and architecture in Bordeaux and Saint-Émilion, our next stop is so very different. It’s about a curious freak of nature, or more precisely, a wandering dune. We drive from Saint-Émilion directly to the Atlantic coast to the Dune du Pilat – the largest walking dune in Europe.

Directly at the Dune du Pilat there is a large parking lot and the visitor center is currently under construction. Therefore, everything is very well signposted – but the parking lot also has a parking fee. We park Ben in the middle of a pine forest and do not quite understand what to expect. The ground is already very sandy, but we don’t see much of a dune through all the pine trees.
That changes abruptly as we come out of the pine forest and we continue to walk against the coastline. Before us a gigantic sand mountain piles up! We climb the dune on the east side. Our path is very steep, in addition the sand is fine and we don’t progress quite as fast. Once we are on top of the dune, we grasp the entire, majestic grandeur of the dune. It extends about 500 meters inland from the sea and is just under 3km long. We see only sand as far as the eye can see in a southerly direction on the heights of the dune. In addition, the strong contrast of the green pine forests on one side and the rich blue of the sea on the other makes for a very beautiful experience!
In the partly very hard and then again very soft sand we explore the crest of the dune and simply enjoy the unique landscape here.