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Lacanau (Municipality, Gironde, France)

Flag of Lacanau - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 26 April 2022

Presentation of Lacanau
Flag of Lacanau
Former flags of Lacanau

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Presentation of Lacanau

Lacanau (5,031 inhabitants in 2021; 21,402 ha) is a commune in the Gironde department and a famous surfing area.

In the 1st century, a modest village of Gallic huts stood at the mouth of the Canau river. This small port (Port Maurice) was occupied by the Romans who replaced the huts with stone houses. The river being very deep, the high-board boats ventured very far inland.
In the 6th century, a geological phenomenon brought out from the bottom of the sea a large quantity of sand which invaded the whole region. The invasion of the coast by the sands changed the ponds of the Médoc over the centuries. In the 12th century, a hamlet existed in Talaris. There would have been a church before the one near the seigniorial castle was built. It was evacuated because of the rising waters. It is said that Saint Louis would have landed at the port of Talaris before joining Bordeaux via Castelnau. It was also in the 11th century that construction began on the pond, on the peninsula of the goats along the river 'la Canau' on the south side and the pond on the east side. The castle was moved and replaced in the 13th century by another building, in wood like the previous one, but more solid. Lacanau then became a stage on the way to Santiago de Compostela starting from Blaye and passing through Soulac, Sainte-Hélène-de-l'Etang and Carcans. A third and last castle was built in the 15th century which will not be destroyed until 1806. The Saint-Vincent-de-Lacanau church, initially located 500m east of the current shore of the lake, was moved in 1764-1765 to its final location because the construction of a dyke was not enough to counter the advance of the marshes. From then on, the Médoc had only one pond along the ocean coast from Sainte-Hélène-de-l'Etang to Lège.

After a few isolated sowings carried out in 1835, the large government sowing workshops aimed at fixing the dunes on the coast began in 1843. Created by decree in 1859, the "Canal des étangs" linking the lakes of Carcans-Hourtin to the Bassin d'Arcachon was inaugurated in its first portion between the south of the pond of Lacanau and the pond of Langouarde at Le Porge on May 31, 1864. The second part linking the lake of Carcans-Hourtin to Lacanau, completed in 1866, was received in 1871. This canal then delimited two distinct territories of the municipality: wetlands and dune areas.
In 1863, the cemetery which surrounded the church was moved to its present site at the entrance to the town. The building built to house the first town hall and a public school was completed in 1864. In 1884 was inaugurated the first railway line linking Arès to Lesparre with a stop in Lacanau. The same year, Pierre Ortal, owner in Lacanau Bourg, informed the municipality of Lacanau in writing of his intention to create a seaside resort on the coastal dunes of the municipality.
In 1899, during a violent forest fire, 4000 hectares of pines were destroyed. In 1904, thanks to a new economic railway line created between Lacanau and the coastal dunes, it became possible to travel by train to the village of Talaris, to the tourist resort of Moutchic and to the new seaside resort at the ocean. The first villas on the coastal dunes emerged from the sands in 1906 and for the first time appeared in a document of the municipality of Lacanau the name of the seaside resort: Lacanau Océan.
In 1917/1918, during the 1st World War, the Americans were authorized to set up a naval air base at Moutchic to create a seaplane flying school there. In 1920, a Red Cross Society - the Association des Dames Françaises - bought the land to make it a sanatorium for children. Inaugurated in 1922, it would later become a preventorium and a medical-school centre.

Since then, Lacanau has continued to grow and attract more and more visitors. The swimmers who came aboard the "pleasure trains" to courageously brave the flow of the waves, holding a rope, have been replaced by surfers, whose spot is now recognized worldwide. A resort anchored in its environment, Lacanau has a diversified offer of nature sports. With 100,000 visitors during the summer season, Lacanau Océan is the leading seaside resort in the Gironde.

The coat of arms is blazoned: Gules a sun Or on a contourned seagull Argent, between two pines eradicated Or, a wavy terrace argent in base with three wavy fesses Azure.

Olivier Touzeau, 26 April 2022

Flag of Lacanau

The flag of Lacanau is derivated from its logo, adopted in its current shape in 2017: photo (2018), photo (2020), photo (undated).

Olivier Touzeau, 26 April 2022

Former flags of Lacanau

Former flags of Lacanau - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 26 April 2022

The former flag before 2015 was white with the former logo: photo (2010); photo (2011); photo (2015).

In 2016, a blue flag with the logo partially outlined in white could be observed: photo (2016).

Olivier Touzeau, 26 April 2022