Discovering Les Landes: South West France’s ‘Surfer’s Paradise’
In the Aquitaine region of Southwest France, you’ll find the most incredible waves for surfing in Europe. You’ll encounter perfect-peeling waves all year around, in all-weather conditions.
Landes Côte Sud, a sub region of Aquitaine, is a superb place to base your surfing holiday. Waves around Hossegor, Seignosse and Capbreton, are hard to beat, this is where they hold the professional surfing contests every year. A deep fault on the floor of the ocean means that the swell arrives very fast onto the sand bars, this creates huge and extremely powerful barrels. The only drawback is that sometimes, it can be frustrating because the French wind can blow hard, ruining good sessions.
You can surf waves from 12 to 14 feet, however the southern beaches are a bit more sheltered from the larger swells of the northern parts of this region and you might want to try the surf sheltered waves at Santosha.
Summer is hot in Southwest France, and if you’re an early morning surfer, you will experience pristine offshore surf sessions, there are 60 kilometres of coast offering optimum conditions. Most of the popular beaches are crowded during the summer but you can find almost empty ones off the beaten path, particularly later in the season.
September, October and November are the favourite times to surf in southern France with some solid swell that can be nicely warm, between 60° to 70° Fahrenheit. It is also cheaper, and the surf is generally more consistent in the off season. The winter can be brutal; you’ll want a good wet-suit with hoodie, gloves, booties and a bottle of tequila!
The city of Soorts-Hossegor is famous for the quality of its waves and is a great destination for surfers, and pâtisserie lovers. Capbreton also has some of the best surfing, its sand banks provide unbelievable waves that are found, at the breaks of VVF, La Piste, Santosha and Prevent. For beginners, they should try the breaks of La Centrale, L’Estacade or La Sud. Seignosse, is another on the South Coast of Landes, which is well known for its surf spots, and vast beaches.