Lacanau

In the 1st century

In the 1st century, a modest town of Gallic huts stood at the mouth of the Canau river. This small port called Port Maurice was occupied by the Romans who replaced the huts with beautiful stone houses. The river being very deep, the high-board boats ventured very far inland as far as Andrauts.

In the 6th century

In the 6th century, a geological phenomenon brought out a large quantity of sand from the bottom of the sea which invaded the entire region. The invasion of the coastline by sand will cause the Médoc ponds to evolve over the centuries.

In the 12th century

In the 12th century, a hamlet existed in Talaris. There would have been a church before the one near the lordly castle was built. It was evacuated due to rising waters. It is said that Saint Louis disembarked at the port of Talaris before joining Bordeaux via Castelnau. It was also in the 11th century that construction began on the pond, on the goat peninsula along the river 'la Canau' on the south side and the pond on the east side. 

In the 13th century

The castle was moved and replaced in the 13th century by another building, made of wood like the previous one, but more solid. Lacanau then became a stopover on the Caminos de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle starting from Blaye and passing through Soulac, Sainte-Hélène-de-l’Etang and Carcans. A third and final castle was built in the 15th century which was not destroyed until 1806.

In the 18th century

The Saint-Vincent-de-Lacanau church, initially located 500m east of the current shore of the lake, was moved in 1764-1765 to its final location because the construction of a dike was not enough to block the advance of the marshes. From then on, the Médoc had only a single pond running along the ocean coast from Sainte-Hélène-de-l’Etang to Lège.

In the 19th century

1884. Inauguration of the first railway line linking Arès to Lesparre with a stop at Lacanau.

1884. Mr. Pierre Ortal, owner in Lacanau Bourg and head of department at Chemins de fer des Landes, informs the municipality of Lacanau in writing of his intention to create a seaside resort on the coastal dunes of the commune .

1885. A new railway line linking Bordeaux to Lacanau is open. The village welcomes new traders, new Belle Époque style residences, and new residents.

In the 20th century

1904/1905. Thanks to a new economical railway line created between Lacanau and the coastal dunes, it is now possible to go by train to the village of Talaris, to the tourist station of Moutchic and the new seaside resort by the ocean.

1906. On the coastal dunes, the first villas emerge from the sands on land offered by the Lacanau Real Estate Company and the Lacanau Railway to the ocean. For the first time appears in a document from the commune of Lacanau the name of the seaside resort: Lacanau Océan.

1908. In Moutchic, the first villas, including the Tour des pins of Baron de Kertel, were built on land offered by the same real estate company. With the arrival of the train in 1904, this fishing spot gradually became a new tourist site.

Today

Since then, Lacanau has continued to grow and attract ever-increasing numbers of visitors. The bathers who came aboard the “pleasure trains” to courageously brave the flow of the waves, hanging on a rope, have given way to the surfers strong>, whose spot is now recognized worldwide.

A resort anchored in its environment, the range of nature sports has diversified. The trendy terraces have conquered the aisles, the stores have multiplied. With 100,000 visitors during the summer season, Lacanau Océan has no reason to be ashamed of its place as the leading seaside resort in the Gironde.