Arcachon tourist information
The Arcachon Basin is the favourite holiday area for the people of Gironde and it has taken advantage of people’s craze for sea-bathing. It still cannot get over it and neither can we. When the Pereire brothers constructed the railway as far as this sea lake in the Pays du Buch, just fifty kilometres from Bordeaux, in the middle of the C.19th it caused a mad rush. Luxury hotels, sumptuous villas a casino in the Moorish style were built in the Ville d’Hiver ( the Winter town); thus it is that the different quarters in Arcachon are named after the seasons. There must be some magic spell that makes these 84 kilometres of coast-line still attract impassioned holidaymakers even now when the splendour is a thing of the past. It is no doubt its pleasantness.
People rent their pine cabins and let themselves be lulled by the toeing and froing of the traditional " pinasses " (flat bottomed boats made of pine) that ply the lake. Fishermen bring in sole and bass and sell it in the harbour in La Ville d’Automne (the Autumn quarter) You can spend a day fishing with them in the waters where fish abound and come back in the evening to have a meal of local oysters,(" gravettes ") and Japanese oysters with crépinettes ( sausage made with white wine ). Arcachon is an important oyster farming centre and the Romans in the time of Crassus were already fond of them. Seven kilometres from the Arcachon basin you must climb the dune de Pilat, the highest dune in Europe, to see the whole length of coast beneath your eyes and to be able to see the sun setting over the ocean. It is one of the wonders of the Aquitaine coast. The best things in life are often free.
