Atelier des Produits Résineux

Luxey

The stubborn smell of turpentine still hangs between the sheds, a lingering memory of the gruelling labour of the resin tappers.

The resin products workshop at Luxey preserves the installations of a former plant for processing gemme (pine resin), listed as a monument historique since 19 February 1990. It traces a century of exploitation of the Landes "green gold" or "golden tree": distillation of spirit of turpentine and manufacture of rosin from the resin gathered by the tappers from the maritime pines. The characteristic tools of resin tapping (the crampon climbing iron, the hapchot tapping tool, the resin pot) are displayed there, bearing witness to an activity that employed tens of thousands of resin workers in the Landes until its decline around the turn of the 1980s.

Getting there : Second site of the Écomusée de la Grande Lande network (Landes de Gascogne Regional Nature Park), open seasonally. Coordinates correspond to the centre of the village of Luxey, the workshop being in the immediate vicinity; to be treated as approximate.

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

Ambient sound