The plus for us was that the cycle path  was right outside of the campsite and our first trip in the afternoon was to take this and follow the canal into Biscarosse itself to pick up supplies.

The next day instead of going into town , we followed the first canal and then over the canal which connects the two lakes and then turned right to follow the lake to Maguide. Here we veered away crossing varied Landes landscape and this section proved the lie that all of the Landes was flat. What we were effectively doing was crossing the old sand dunes which had led to the creation of the inland lakes and now forested to hold down the sand. Though this section, until we reached the coast was very much up and down , it afforded superb vistas of the landscape.

A short detour  takes you to Biscarosse Plage and if you thought Biscarosse itself  was modern then this town holds few surprises. It was built primarily for the tourist trade  and with its superb beaches, the attraction is obvious.

A 20 mile round trip with lunch included makes this an easy outing and there is also a superb poissoniere to take the catch of the day back for supper.

Towards Maguide

If you are feeling energetic then proceed to Arcachon which is a reasonably testing roundtrip of 45 miles, well it was for us.

If you have any energy left you can climb the Dune de Pilat, which is the largest sand dune in Europe at 3 kms long and 110 metres high, the views are amazing but it is a tiring climb and as we had done this in the past we gave this a miss. If you only want to visit the dune you can shave 10 miles off of the round trip, so giving you more energy for the climb.

You can climb up the sand, which is really hard work or you can take the easier option of using the wooden 'stairways'