What the Pines Do Not Know

On July 12, 2022, a van caught fire on a small road, the “piste 214,” that winds through the pine forest towards the beach south of La Teste. After several months of intense drought and with temperatures hovering around 40°C, it marked the beginning of a series of wildfires that, within a month, ravaged 30,000 hectares and forced the evacuation of 60,000 people.

This area is part of the Landes Forest, in the southwest of France. The forest spans a triangle bordered by the coast, stretching for about 150 kilometers between Bayonne and the Bay of Arcachon. The coast is a long beach dotted with popular seaside towns. The films Camping (I, II, and III) by Fabien Onteniente made the beach alongside the forest of La Teste particularly famous in France: beneath a few pine trees, nestled against a dune and facing the ocean, a family heads to the beach, burdened with large inflatable rafts. The “Flots Bleus” campsite, where the films were shot, was entirely destroyed by the July 2022 fire.