In the Landes region (quite a way south of Hardelot, south of the Vendee in fact) they used to have terrible problems with severe storms breaking through the dunes and flooding the flat fertile settlements beyond.
Somebody there (whose name I’ve forgotten) came up with the idea in the mid C.19 of planting softwood saplings to stabilise the dunes and thereby toughen up the storm defences and is heralded as a great man locally.
I’ve wandered through the woods you must penetrate before reaching the beaches in the Landes and speculated upon what a fabulous golf course could be carved through those wooded dunes. C19 France was the most centralised nation in the world at the time so it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that the success of the scheme in the Landes could have been encouraged elsewhere, like, say, the dunes south of Boulogne.
Anyway, this is a long-winded way of saying that looks like a great course - just like the fantasy course I was constructing walking though those big, wooded, dunes in Les Landes.
I agree, Simpson would have been initially shocked by the current look. For him, everything had to be natural, no matter how artificial the means used to achieve that look. In the Lonsdale ‘Golf’ he even captions a picture criticising a greenkeeper for cutting the rough in an even line – not for cutting it in a straight line, just a smooth one. And anyone who has seen his drawings would realise what’s been lost in the bunkering as well.
But personally, I’d prefer to celebrate what’s left. Great pics Frank!