La Teste-de-Buch

La Teste-de-Buch lies beside the great sheltered basin of Arcachon, close to pine woods and shifting coastal sands. It was part of the captalat of Buch, a lordship that also included Gujan and Cazaux. The forest supplied timber and resin: in 1383 Captal Archambault de Grailly obtained permission from Richard II of England to establish a resin market at La Teste. A later agreement in 1535 regulated the inhabitants' use of the woods.