Page 23 - Theodore Rousseau: A Magnificent Obsession

Fig. 8 - Les Landes 1850s

Until around 1790, the marshy dunes extending from the Côte d’Argent boasted only sparsely
growing trees and the ground was so treacherous with swelling marshes and shifting sands that
shepherds in the region had to use stilts (Fig. 8)10. Under Napoleon III, in conjunction with
drainage, vast numbers of resin pines and some oaks were planted in an effort to stabilise the land
and establish timber for mine pit props and a turpentine industry11.

10 This photo dates from circa 1840-50 before the planting of pines.
11 ‘Fixing the dunes was commenced in the eighteenth century, but it was only with the creation by the State of a Commission
of Dunes that the works, inspired by those of local Landais proprietors, advanced seriously. In 1817, 4,000 hectares of sand
were fixed and in 1825, the whole coastline was stabilised. From 1862, theWaters and Forests Service successfully maintained
the coastal dune line…… As part of his love for the department of Les Landes, Napoleon III bought an 8,000 hectare area of
uncultivated land in the “Grande Lande” that he baptised Solférino, and at its head he put Henri Crouzet.This man, who had
an excellent knowledge of the land and the drainage done by the Landais inhabitants, is considered to be the inspiration for
the 1857 law. At Solférino, he succeeded so well in his land clean-up that the imperial domain became a first order
experimental zone. Crouzet created numerous agricultural roads, established new cultivation and dried the Orx Marsh, to the
south of Les Landes. Crouzet had the benefit of marrying a descendant of L.M. Desbiey who did the first works to fix dunes
in the 18th century. The law imposed by Emperor Napoleon III in 1857, ordered all the communes of Gascogne Landes, not
just the coastline, be drained and then planted with maritime pines making the land useable and rich.’ Quoted from
abelard.org, loc. cit.

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