the Love Forest

We went to a park in La Baule--the city we have been staying in for the bulk of this Christmas vacation in France--and we came across this statue commemorating Louis Lajarrige, a figure important in the history of the town. He was the owner of the plot of land he termed "le Bois d'Amour"--literally "the Forest of Love"--which he turned into something of a tourist attraction and helped get the train system to find its way to La Baule in the 1920s. The city is now a popular tourist destination, particularly in the summertime, as it is home to the longest contiguous sand beach in Europe. It is also sometimes called "La Baule-les Pins"--famous for the pine trees which are frequent to the area.