Kitesurfing atLacanau

Lacanau Plage Nord is the ocean at the foot of a real surf town, where a major tour stop is run. Nothing like the lake next door, where you learn: here it's a genuine wave spot, Atlantic swell and shorebreak, for riders who already have miles in. On a north-west thermal in summer we meet to the north, by the Maison de la Glisse, where the beach opens up enough to rig in peace.

All of Lacanau's character lies in its two faces: an urban surf town on one side, an ocean that doesn't mess about on the other. Surf culture soaks everything — a major tour stop, a dense line-up the moment it's on — and kiting is the guest here, not the host. In practice that means two things: you share the water with surfers you don't always see, and you work around tight summer rules that, in patrolled season, leave just one official ocean kite zone at Super-South. It's off-season that the spot really gives itself up, when the beach empties and the north-west thermal settles in. One bit of geography to keep in mind: to the south the town has armoured its seafront with rock and breakwaters — hard stuff in the water at high tide. And always, behind the postcard, the shadow of the baïnes.