Test-of-Buch

Test-with-Buch (in Occitan Gascon Tested It) is a common French, located in the department of the the Gironde and the area Aquitaine. It belongs to the historical area of the Gascogne.

Its inhabitants is called the Testerins , or Pylatais for Pyla, or Cazalins for Cazaux.

Geography

• Located in the department of the the Gironde, in the middle of the Moors of Gascogne; capital of the Country of Buch.
• Tests It is a commune located in the south of the Basin of Arcachon, between Gujan-Mestras and Biscarrosse. It surrounds the town of Arcachon, old hamlet of the city of Test-of-Buch.
• In the North-West of the commune is the Dune of Pyla or Dune of Pilat who is prolonged in the south by beaches océanes, very appraisals during the summer months.
• In south-east is the lake of Cazaux, with horse on the departments of the the Gironde and the Landes.
• the remainder of the commune consists of old dunes, whose natural timbering evolved/moved little during the centuries. It is one of rare the natural forest of the Landes of Gascogne.
• the seaside resort of the Pyla-sur-Mer, the village of Cazaux, the island with the birds and the Banc of Arguin belong to the commune of Test-of-Buch.

History

Boïates

The history of Teste is deeply related to that of the Pays of Buch and the Gascogne landaise. The first traces of settlement in the area go up at the 8th front century J. - C. when the Boïates, people Aquitain, settle near a place which is that of the current commune of the Teich. They practice fishing, cultivate the grounds and develop the first technique of Gemmage from which they manufacture tar, useful for the Calfatage of the boats.

With the the Middle Ages

One knows few things concerning the history of the area until the beginning of the Middle Ages, time to which, the Captaux de Buch reigned on part of the Pays of Buch: Captalat, gathering the parishes of Tests, Cazaux, and Gujan (today Gujan-Mestras). Two types of people rythmaient the local economic life: the fishermen who exploited the resources of the Bassin of Arcachon and the résiniers which exploited the resource of the forest. The establishment of the dwellings did not respect any alignment, with the right in the middle of the vines and the kitchen gardens. With the right in the middle of the hardly traced lanes, huts out of wooden alternated with low houses bleached with lime. The life was hard and of the diseases due to malnutrition as the Pellagre were spread in the population.

Captaux de Buch

The title of Captal de Buch was employed Moyen-âge until the Révolution, to indicate one of the lords of the Pays of Buch.

detailed Article: Captal de Buch

The timbering of the migratory dunes

detailed Article: the fixing of the dunes in Aquitaine

With the 18th century, and for some time already, all the coast Landaise was threatened by mobile sands that the wind carted daily, and in particular the borough of Teste. The first craftsmen of the fixing of the dunes were Captaux de Buch of the family of Ruat. The first was J.B of Ruat in 1713, which undertook to plant some pines to slow down wind erosion, but sowings were burned at the end of a few years. Its grandson, François de Ruat renewed the experiment where sands threatened, of 1782 with 1787 in the surroundings of Moulleau. But the money was quickly lacking and Captal could not only continue this company. Thus it was relieved, when some Brémontier, engineer of the Ponts and Chaussées, came to Teste with an aim of carrying out a navigable channel of the Basin to the Adour; what required the fixing of mobile sands. Brémontier got information and took note of work of Captal. In 1786 it obtained the sufficient appropriations to continue the company which began with the agreement from Captal in Pays from Buch, the continuation is known. All the Gascogne landaise was upset by these transformations (and in particular after the law of the June 18th 1857 which ordered with the communes to timber their territories).

Brémontier became for the posterity that which stopped the invasion of the dunes. “O oublieux world! precursory truths of the fixing of the dunes were gifts these lords de Ruat, small lords of Buch and not some Brémontier, Desbiey or Charlevoix de Villiers. ” (J. Sargos) the fixing of the dunes is not either the only work of Captal: “the forest landaise is by no means a creation of the public power, it is not advantage the work of a man whom this man is called Brémontier or Chambrelent (…) it is actually the fruit of the effort and of the saving of thousands of peasants landais who, during two centuries transformed the old pastoral mode into forest mode. ” (J. Sargos)

At the 19th century

The exploitation of the forest for a long time constitutes already the independent source of richnesses of the commune. The forest of Teste was made of two thousand-year-old solid masses, similar to those which one knows today: the Large Mountain in the middle of the commune, and the forest of Arcachon: the Small Mountain. These forests constitute the embryos of what will give the Forêt of the Moors. The remainder consists of mobile sand dunes which worried on several occasions the inhabitants of the borough. The Résinier S which exploited the forests of Teste lived the week in huts out of wooden on their pieces and turned over to the borough to spend the weekend.

The agro-pastoral system was widespread in the moor in the east of the dune fringe of the littoral.

The maritime trade also brought some incomes for the fishermen of the parishes of Arcachon and of Test-of-Buch.

The borough of Teste consists of a hundred detached houses and placed without any order. In summer the least breath of wind raised thick clouds of dust, whereas in winter mud made the streets impracticable. The general aspect of the borough gave an impression of poverty and desolation. Sometimes the flow and the relfux of the tides penetrated deeply in the salted meadows and overflowed into the city.

The XIXè century is one century during which many experiments took place to develop the plain of Cazaux on the agricultural level. The Company of Exploitation and Colonization of the Moors will dig the Canal of Cazaux in 1835.

In 1841, the train arrives with Teste with the creation of the line Bordeaux it Teste. This event will hustle the practices, and the area opens with tourism. One comes from Bordeaux to attend the races landaises in the arenas of Teste and from Arcachon. In 1857, Arcachon becomes an independent commune, and in the years 1860, the Pereire brothers create the Town of Winter.

The rise of tourism

At the beginning of the 19th century, the inhabitants of this part of the Pays of Buch live still mainly of the exploitation of the forest and fishing at sea. Badly served until there by an highway network of poor quality, it is not that with the construction of the railway line Bordeaux it Teste and its opening the July 6th 1841, that the area makes true demographic and tourist great strides.

Although already attended by certain followers of the sea bathings, Arcachon is not yet that a hamlet of Teste with some huts occupied by fishermen and résiniers. Before 1845 and the creation of a secondary road towards Arcachon, to come of Teste one must cross muddy salted meadows and follow a fort bad way of sand. Passages are thus organized - by sea - at the beginning of the port of Teste, in Norway pines with veil or oars operated sometimes by solids women… End 1855, few 400 inhabitants of Arcachon distributed in less than 300 villas or houses out of wooden (of which some open trade during the beautiful season) ask their communal autonomy… By the imperial decree (Napoleon III) of the May 2nd 1857, 759 hectares are taken with the commune of Teste to leave room to the common news of Arcachon, finally reached by the railway the next on July 26th. As of 1862 the brothers Emile and Isaac Pereire imply themselves in the development of Arcachon whose climate is considered to be exceptional by some celebrities of the medical world, in the treatment of asthma, the bronchial chronicles or the affections of the nervous system. They create the Town of Winter for fortunate customers which could séjouner there at greater length that simply the summer, while benefitting there from the healing virtues of the scents of the pines and the ocean or to look after there diseases of this end of the 19th century.

During this time, with Teste the evolution is slower and the ancestral traditions of the Pays of Buch remain safe from the tourist passion: “Tests It is certainly not banal, it is a city Landaise blottie with the hollow of an alignment of dunes, a feudal capital in full gestation. ” (a History of the Basin). But the commune will not remain fixed well a long time: at the beginning of the 20th century during the First World War, the borough of Cazaux accommodates a Camp of aviation become since Air base 120 " Commander Marzac" and at the same time, Daniel Meller creates the Real estate company of the Pyla-sur-Mer on a sector which develops in the prolongation of Moulleau, towards the Large dune.

As from the years 1950, the city knows a true demographic explosion and sees changing its traditional activities. Gradually, the exploitation of the Gemme will cease a few years only after the golden age of the resin. The Lesca factory distilling the firm Gem in the years 1970 and the last gemmeurs leave the forest in the years 1980. The sawmills close. Ostreiculture starts to lose its charm of antan, its slim Norway pines replaced by boat-vats and its old brown huts demolished with the profit of modern hangars. The doubling of the old RN650 by the " rapide" sees; quickly renamed " directe" sees; shortened the distance separating what becomes the " South Bassin" remainder of the department. In the " districts résidentiels" Pyla-sur-Mer as in those more ordinary which build side of Cazaux and Teste, the real estate develops, the industrial parks are packed. Balneal tourism remains however one of the headlight activities, recognized well beyond the regional limits.

Nowadays Test-of-Buch remainder one of the most extended communes of France, not summarizing itself with only one but with three quite distinct entities which make its richness of it: the borough, Cazaux and the Pyla-sur-Mer. Since 1976, the Cape-Tag which formerly formed part of common, for administrative reasons, was attached to the commune of Light, thus giving rise to Light-Cape-Tag.

Economy

Medieval time until the end of the years 1980, the commune of Teste lived exploitation of the resin.

Today, the economic main activities of the commune are tourism initially, then the Ostréiculture and naval construction.

The commune has a delegation of the Chamber of commerce and industry of Bordeaux.

Administration