Landes de Gascogne Regional Natural Park, Regional natural park in New Aquitaine, France.
The Landes de Gascogne Regional Natural Park stretches from Arcachon Bay to the south of Grande-Lande, straddling the Landes and Gironde departments. It follows the valleys of the Grande Leyre and Petite Leyre. Pine forest covers 90% of its territory, with wetlands and deciduous gallery forest along the Leyre and the maritime landscapes of Arcachon Bay.
The roughly triangular area was originally an inland sea that receded, leaving an infertile depression that attracted little settlement. Large-scale public works drained, cleared and reforested it during the nineteenth century, following the law on the sanitation and cultivation of the Landes de Gascogne. The park itself was created by decree on 16 October 1970, with an initial area of 206,000 hectares.
The park's emblem comes from a woodcut on a beam of a 1772 Landaise house in Luxey: a fox looks up at a hen perched in a poultry house raised on stilts, a design that protected flocks from predators. The Écomusée de la Grande Lande, with its Marquèze quarter at Sabres, presents this rural life. The Luxey resin workshop, listed as a monument historique in 1990, shows gemme distillation.
Visitors can cycle on roughly 76 kilometers of marked pathways connecting Bazas to Arcachon Bay, with rental services and sign-posted trails throughout the park. Walking paths are also available for those preferring slower exploration.
The Leyre River winds through the park beneath a leafy canopy of gallery forest for about 100 kilometers before reaching Arcachon Bay. This shaded river corridor creates a special habitat where otters and kingfishers make their homes.
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