Medoc Atlantique

LachanauHourtin Port

1. 

   Lachanau

   lake

   Lachanau is the wild one of the two legal kite accesses on Lac de Carcans-Hourtin, the other being Hourtin Port.

   intermediateadvanced

   In seasonJun to Oct

   1. JanJ34
   2. FebF33
   3. MarM42
   4. AprA43
   5. MayM52
   6. Jun, riders' monthJ28
   7. Jul, riders' monthJ34
   8. Aug, riders' monthA31
   9. Sep, riders' monthS25
   10. Oct, riders' monthO42
   11. NovN40
   12. DecD34

   modelled: days with three hours in a row at 12 kt or more, between 06:00 and 19:00 local

   Ringed months are the ones riders and schools name: Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct.

   Lachanau: the long version, the launch and the rules

   More on Lachanau

   Freshwater, no tide, flat when the thermal is light and choppy once a front comes through. Summer runs on thermals: east in the morning, swinging northwest around midday and building through the afternoon, usually 8-15 knots and on a good day 10-20, then fading toward evening. September and October bring the depressions, with 35-40 knots on the big days and a lot more gust. The launch is small and marshy, often under water, with mud in places, and the whole spot is boxed in by the yellow buoys, so on a north or northwest day a rider who cannot hold upwind is outside the zone in minutes. Beginners and families: go to Hourtin Port instead. Houses and hunting blinds sit around the access, and how you park and behave on the road is part of whether this spot stays open.

   Getting on the water

   Small, wild lake access at Lachanau with a marshy, often inundated launch and muddy bottom. Do not rig on the small sandy beach.

   If it goes wrong

   Nothing covers independent riders here. There is no lifeguard post on this stretch of shore, no boat on call and nothing posted at the access; the nearest supervised beach is up at Hourtin-Port and its flagged area is a different part of the lake. This is inland fresh water, so an emergency call goes to 112 or 18, not the 196 sea-rescue line. If you ride with one of the schools working out of the zone, ask what cover it runs before you go out.

   Room to rig

   Small and often overcrowded, with schools present; gear must not be left blocking the takeoff area.

   Rules and access

   2026: kitesurfing on Lac de Carcans-Hourtin is regulated and in practice only the two accesses at Hourtin Port and Lachanau are used. At Lachanau you stay inside the round yellow buoys and never ride south of them, and riding in the small beach to the left of the take-off zone is formally forbidden. The access is residential: drive slowly, park without blocking the road, keep the noise down and do not sleep on the access path; do not rig on the small sandy beach. The order in force is the prefectural navigation order of 1 September 2014, and its published summary is stricter than what happens on the water: it allows kitesurf only from 15 November to 31 March, north of a notional line from the Pointe Blanche to the Lacanau channel, and outside the shore bands. No reconciliation between that text and the summer school activity has been published. General lake rules: no night navigation, 5 km/h in the shore band and channels, and all nautical activity banned inside the national nature reserve perimeter.

   Everything on Lachanau

2. 

   Hourtin Port

   lake · beginner ok

   Hourtin Port is the beginner end of Lac de Carcans-Hourtin and one of only two legal kite zones on the lake, the other being Lachanau.

   intermediateadvanced

   In seasonJun to Oct

   1. JanJ35
   2. FebF19
   3. MarM26
   4. AprA22
   5. MayM35
   6. Jun, riders' monthJ13
   7. Jul, riders' monthJ26
   8. Aug, riders' monthA24
   9. Sep, riders' monthS10
   10. Oct, riders' monthO29
   11. NovN33
   12. DecD23

   modelled: days with three hours in a row at 12 kt or more, between 06:00 and 19:00 local

   Ringed months are the ones riders and schools name: Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct.

   Hourtin Port: the long version, the launch and the rules

   More on Hourtin Port

   The kite beach is just south of the tourist beach, behind a wooden barrier, with parking, shops and amenities a short walk away. Freshwater, no tide, flat to choppy, and you can reportedly still stand more than 100 m out; the standing area runs to about 2 km by 800 m. The summer thermal is the catch: it starts east in the morning, swings northwest around midday and builds through the afternoon, but on a normal day it is 8-15 knots, so bring the 11-14 m2 or a foil. September-October depressions are a different animal, with 35-40 knots possible. The rules are tight: only the marked Hourtin Port and Lachanau zones, and at Hourtin Port you stay south of the yellow-buoy line. In north wind the launch sits in a wind shadow, so on those days people launch and land from the water. June to October is the window, on the same Medoc thermal/frontal pattern as Lachanau.

   Getting on the water

   Dedicated kite beach south of the tourist beach at Hourtin Port, marked by a wooden barrier/signage for the kite zone.

   If it goes wrong

   Nothing covers the kite zone. The lake bathing beach next to the marina, just north of the kite beach, is a supervised beach with municipal lifeguards in the summer season, but its flagged area is not where you ride and the 2026 dates and hours are not published online. The school coaches its kite lessons by radio and puts a safety boat out for wingfoil; that boat is for its own clients. This is inland fresh water, so an emergency call goes to 112 or 18, not to the 196 sea-rescue line.

   Room to rig

   Medium/good lake launch with parking, shops and amenities close by; the water area is shared courteously with windsurfers.

   Rules and access

   2026: kitesurfing on Lac de Carcans-Hourtin is regulated and in practice only the two accesses at Hourtin Port and Lachanau are used. At Hourtin Port the kite zone is marked by round yellow buoys and navigation stays south of the buoy line; the beach itself is signed as a kite zone behind a wooden barrier, south of the tourist beach. Kitesurfing elsewhere on the lake, Carcans Maubuisson included, is forbidden. The order in force is the prefectural navigation order of 1 September 2014, and its published summary is stricter than what happens on the water: it allows kitesurf only from 15 November to 31 March, north of a notional line from the Pointe Blanche to the Lacanau channel, and outside the shore bands. Nobody has published a reconciliation between that text and the summer school activity, so ask the town hall before counting on a July session. General lake rules: no night navigation, 5 km/h in the shore band and in the channels, and all nautical activity banned inside the national nature reserve perimeter.

   Everything on Hourtin Port

• Bordeaux–Mérignac, roughly 50–54km away

Kite bag rules for your airline

Type the carrier you are flying: what it charges for a kite bag, and the year of the policy that says so.

Known for France:easyJetRyanairAir FranceTransavia

Every carrier, with limits and what riders report at the counter →

1. Riding is confined to a marked zone and a band along the shore, the east bank is a nature reserve where water activity is banned outright, and in summer the limits are actually policed.

   consensus×4 riders

2. The lake is soft on beginners because you can stand a long way out, and the same shallowness is the thing people complain about: at Lachanau you walk out a long time before there is enough water to do anything, which foilers in particular find tedious.

   consensus×3 riders

3. Summer wind here is thermal and it belongs to the afternoon; the number that keeps coming back is ten to eighteen knots, smooth rather than punchy, which is why the kites people bring are big.

   consensus×3 riders

4. The way people talk about it is as a family holiday that happens to have wind — warm water, shaded parking with showers, kids on the beach — rather than as a kite trip, with the ocean scene treated as a separate outing down the road.

   majority×3 riders

5. It is genuinely crowded in July and August, and the advice given to visitors is to have their right-of-way rules straight before they launch rather than after.

   majority×2 riders

6. Out of season the wind is thinner and gustier than the summer thermal, and light-wind gear is what makes a November trip worth doing at all.

   majority×2 riders

7. There is no agreement on when to come: one reading has May to September as the season because that is when the thermal and the warm water line up, another says spring is the real core and summer trades wind days for people.

   contested×2 riders

• The commune of Hourtin was known as Cartignac until 1628; medieval legend holds that a town called 'Luzerne' or 'Louvergne' was swallowed as advancing dunes sealed off a former sea inlet into what is now the lake.
• The surrounding Landes forest was planted under Napoleon III and sustained a resin-tapping (gemmage) economy into the late 20th century.
• The area's pine forest has suffered major storm damage in recent decades, from storms Martin and Klaus.

What we could not settle. Ride here? These are the gaps worth filling.

• Is 'Medoc Atlantique' the name riders actually use for this area?
• What do a bed and a meal cost on the Medoc Atlantique in 2026?
• Storm 'Martin and Klaus' date attribution in the source is imprecise (Klaus is generally dated 2009, not 1999-2000) and should be checked against a primary source
• Is the Hourtin triathlon still running after 2021?