On the Sand Dunes...

We used this last weekend we have together (my friends and i) to visit one of the attractions of the Gironde- the Dunes de Pilat and the Bassin d'Arcachon. This weekend was also a break from the stressful time we all are going through right now in preparing our "Soutenance de Memoire" which is due in 2-3 weeks.

The Dunes de Pilat is the tallest sand dune of Europe and is found in the community of La Teste de Buch.The dune has a volume of about 60,000,000 m³, measuring around 500 m wide from east to west and 2.7 km in length from north to south. Its height is 108 metres above sea level. 

The dune is considered a foredune, meaning a dune that runs parallel to a shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean, behind the high tide line of a beach. The dune has been observed to move landward, slowly pushing the forest back to cover houses, roads and even portions of the atlantic wall. This great wall of sand has been formed by the powerful Atlantic ocean winds.