Luxury holiday homes have gone up in flames in a top French holiday hotspot - with desperate tourists forced to flee a 'monster' wildfire by sea or down a single road. Lège-Cap Ferret in southwestern France is in the middle of a total evacuation with thousands of hectares of forest burning and sprawling villas going up in smoke.The fires, which began on Tuesday in Saumos, Gironde, continued to burn overnight with 8,700 hectares (around 21,500 acres) consumed by the flames. French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 40,000 people had either been or were in the process of being evacuated from the upmarket Cap Ferret peninsula, which has the Atlantic on one side and the Bay of Arcachon on the other.'A total of 80 homes have burnt, around 50 of which have been completely destroyed,' he told reporters.A 90-minute drive from Bordeaux, the string of fishing villages is a popular destination for Paris' elite, with miles of sandy beaches and windswept dunes.But now, distressed tourists are anxiously fleeing the beloved getaway either on boats or by the only road linking the area with the mainland.Residents have described the inferno as 'mega-fire' and 'apocalyptic', while French President Emmanuel Macron has requested urgent help from the European Union as the country's growing battle against wildfires intensifies.