LA PETITE SOULAN

Les Landes is a majestuous forest, with slender pine trees. Behind its apparent banality, it hides beautiful things. One can cross a logged area, a sort of desert strewn with stumps, then a thick area of very tall pine trees at the foot of which a carpet of ferns grows in a homogeneous soft green. We love it when the sun pierces the cover of the trees that hatch the sky in all directions. We walk on gray earth paths, in the middle of woods. We go from a seedling that is undulating to young pines that are already perfectly aligned. A chainsaw can be heard in the distance; the only human presence in the forest.

You learn to read the landscape while walking. You can spot the old deciduous trees that mark the boundaries of former cultivated plots or farms that have disappeared. Sometimes, we are surprised to find a very old house structured by the polished oak of its half-timbering. Beams at the base of cob walls, white lime, low door which is still used for the scullery from where a wooden staircase goes to the attic... An old house nestled under its wings of Roman tiles. Or the banks of brooks cluttered with royal osmonds. The Coste Heince is easy to find with its spring that lets its clear and icy waters flow continuously.

In Morcenx on the square with giant plane trees, the market is the perfect image of the countryside. Plucked chicken bunches with pale flesh, live birds in cages, red tomatoes... You can hear the sound of pétanque rolling in the middle of the day. The rosé rises to the cheekbones of old men with moustaches. Short peasant women dressed in nylon aprons, gossip in boots that stop at mid-calf. A piece of old life that can also be found in Marquèze where the heritage of the pastoral past of the region has been reproduced. It reminds us of the first time we entered La Soulan with its cold and humid air. And the memory of the house with white walls and terracotta floors...

The Landes is also the town of Solferino and its cottages: ten identical houses facing each other on either side of the road. It is Hossegor in the entre-mer-et-lac to discover the incredible villas clinging to the wooded hills, built as refuges with sea views and untouchable vegetation. And it is Dax,  with streets of old stones. Hotel Splendid offers an anachronistic Art Deco decor on the banks of the Adour river. Or further on, in Chalosse, a region of ridges on which the road winds. At the hollows, at the peaks, stone farms with unevenly pitched roofs that descend very low. At the junction of the Landes pine forest and the Gers hills, stands Labastide d'Armagnac, one of the most authentic medieval bastides of the Landes. A pretty little town, with a central square and ogival arcades...