Maillas is a small, widely spaced commune in the northern Landes, at the edge of the Landes d’Armagnac community of communes and beside the departments of Gironde and Lot-et-Garonne. INSEE counted 125 municipal residents across the full commune in 2023, with a density of 2 people per square kilometre; the average annual change from 2017 to 2023 was minus 1%. The intercommunal page gives an area of 6,384 hectares. This is a place to approach through its forest landscape and scattered settlement, not a compact tourist centre.
Forest management is part of the local economy as well as the scenery. The community of communes says the forest has shaped the village’s development and helped fund improvements to the centre and acquisition of its communal restaurant. The National Forestry Office lists 639 hectares of municipal forest under a management plan approved in 2015 and in force through 2029. INSEE counted only eight employer establishments at the end of 2024: three were in agriculture, forestry and fishing, four in commerce, transport and services, and one in public administration, education, health or social action. Because the total is so small, these counts are a narrow snapshot, not a broad measure of local employment. The Department’s Nature 40 plan also lists 58.72 hectares of “Lagunes de Maillas” as lagoons and ponds. That inventory does not establish public access to the wetlands.
The clearest architectural visit is Notre-Dame, just outside the village centre. The regional heritage inventory dates its main building campaigns to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with two side chapels added around 1500 and a third in the sixteenth century. The Ministry of Culture describes a Romanesque foundation probably from the thirteenth century and a bell-gable façade; the Landes tourism listing notes golden-toned stone and three openings in the bell wall. The heritage inventory records that the church escaped the 1569 destruction of other churches in the Roquefort area. Current interior opening times were not available in the sources checked, so confirm access with the mairie before making a special trip.
There is a route reference, but not a visitor-ready trail description: a 2021 environmental-impact study on the government website lists a “Circuit de Maillas” for mountain biking, without a map, length, current markings or maintenance status. Do not treat that old mention as proof of a signed route today; ask the mairie or Landes d’Armagnac tourism office before setting out. The government directory lists France Services in Captieux 7.2 km away and shows the mairie at 90 route de Bourriot, open Tuesday and Friday at published hours; confirm both service times before travel. The community page describes a municipal restaurant as a local gathering place, but does not establish today’s opening schedule.
