Écomusée de Marquèze

Sabres

The silence of the pines is broken only by the whistle of the little train and the bleating of Landes sheep, as if suspended in the 19th century.

Opened in 1970, the Marquèze ecomuseum was one of the very first ecomuseums created in France and recreates an airial (the clearing-hamlet typical of the Grande Lande) as it existed before the great planting of conifers imposed by the law of 19 June 1857. Re-erected or restored here are a half-timbered master's house, a borde (thatched barn), a meysouet (a shepherd's modest dwelling), a tenant farm, a mill on stilts brought from Geloux and a miller's house from Vert, illustrating the agro-pastoral way of life and the grazing of Landes sheep watched over by shepherds on stilts. The site, owned by the Landes de Gascogne Regional Nature Park, can be reached only by a little tourist train boarded at Sabres station.

Getting there : Reached only by a narrow-gauge tourist train (about 4 km, 10 minutes) from Sabres station; run by the Landes de Gascogne Regional Nature Park, open seasonally (April to October). Coordinates of the hamlet of Marquèze given here as approximate.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound