Wildfires have forced about 375,000 people to leave their homes in France and Spain.

In France, nearly 260,000 have had to flee, while in neighbouring Spain 116,000 have been evacuated as the wildfires continue to wreak havoc across southern Europe.

Authorities in France have been battling to contain a huge wildfire near Bordeaux, meanwhile, while Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has warned that Spain and the Iberian peninsula were suffering the effects of the climate emergency.

It comes as another heatwave could hit France from Tuesday, with temperatures reaching 40C (104F) in some areas, weather forecasters said.

Tourists caught up in the wildfires spoke to us about their experiences.

Patrick, 77, was at a beach in Arcachon on the south-west coast of France on Thursday when he noticed the sky getting darker, and a “great billowing pall of black smoke” developing.

“It was the beginning of a slightly otherworldly experience,” he said. He and his wife were forced to hitchhike 42 miles (69km) back to Bordeaux, where they were staying on holiday, after all trains were cancelled due to an electrical fault which had nothing to do with the fire. The couple entered a bike shop and asked for a piece of cardboard, on which Patrick wrote “Bordeaux SVP. Urgence!”.

They walked about a mile out of town to a roundabout and stuck their thumbs out, hitching a ride within five minutes. That took them halfway, until they were picked up by the owner of a chain of local coffee shops who was on route to Bordeaux to collect his wife, who was stranded because of the cancelled trains.

It was only after getting back safely to Bordeaux, and watching the news unfold, that the severity of the fires hit them.

“We realised that the two people who had given us lifts lived in areas where houses were burned and tens of thousands of people were being evacuated,” he said. “I hope they are both OK.”

He described the “chilling feeling” of seeing life on the beach seemingly going on as usual whilst smoke gathered in the skies above.

“My main memory is how bizarre it was to watch people enjoying holidays on the beach while a major catastrophe was unfolding in full view, not far away. Is this how the world ends?”

‘The sky just changed colour and the smoke was really intense.’ Photograph: Alexandra/Guardian Community

Alexandra, 44, was holidaying with family members when she decided to cut her break short on Friday after seeing an “apocalyptic” scene on the sand dunes near her resort at Lacanau Océan, in the Gironde region in south-west France.

“The sky just changed colour and the smoke was really intense. There was ash falling from the clouds, and the beach was littered with black soot where the waves normally leave seaweed,” she said.

“It was oddly haunting and beautiful, but also obviously quite terrifying.”

Alexandra and her partner booked a flight back to the UK and headed to Bordeaux, where they booked into an airport hotel, thinking they had “done the right thing and gotten out of the way”, but the fire had followed them east.

An emergency alert on their mobile phones woke them up at 2.45am, informing them that the area around the airport was under an evacuation order. They joined other guests downstairs. “There were a lot of people confused, waiting in reception, not knowing what was happening,” she said.

They were taken by a taxi to the Bordeaux exhibition centre, and spent several hours waiting for sunrise with hundreds of other evacuees from the local neighbourhood, before travelling to the airport on Saturday morning.

“It was really heartening to see how well people were being looked after,” she said. “Hopefully the light rain will help the firefighters get this blaze under control. They must be exhausted.”

Smoke over Lacanau Océan looking south towards Le Porge. Photograph: Jason/Guardian Community

Jason, 53, from Cardiff, was also staying at Lacanau Océan at a campsite with his wife and three children, but they left after “ash began to fall from the sky”.

“We were four days into a three-week holiday and had gone down to the beach on Friday and you could see the smoke gradually rising,” said Jason, who is an academic. “As the morning went on, the smoke was growing. So we cycled about a mile back to the campsite, and by then you could see the smoke quite clearly from there. It kept growing, and in the end, it was covering the sun. Everything went dark. It was pretty heavy, the smoke was horrendous.”

‘As the morning went on the smoke was growing.’ Photograph: Jason/Guardian Community

He said as the day progressed things “calmed down”, and the smoke moved on, but then came the ash.

“That was a bit uncomfortable,” he added. “At that point, we decided to pack up everything on the Saturday and leave. We thought enough is enough. I think most of the campsite left at the same time.”

He sympathised with the campsite and the region as holidaymakers left.

“Lacanau Océan was empty,” he said. “There was hardly anybody there in the restaurants. And this time of year, as you can imagine, it would be really busy and full. It’s a difficult one because we recognise the fact that the tourist industry is really important down there.”

He said he and his wife and children, aged 14, 19 and 21, are “in limbo” as they have been told the campsite is still open, but authorities have said they “cannot travel back there”.

The campsite Jason was staying in at Lacanau Océan emptied because of the wildfire. Photograph: Jason/Guardian Community

The family has been holidaying in this part of France for more the past 20 years, but Jason believes this will be their last visit. “It really brought it home how serious it was when we started to drive towards Bordeaux and then north,” he said.

“We saw police, fire trucks, ambulances and the big airbus to drop water. We have been aware of wildfires in the area, but this is on another level.

“I’ve always believed in climate change, and this is just an outcome of that. We’ve seen it getting worse over the past five years, definitely. It’s been getting warmer every year. We’ve always known there are wildfires in this region, but we’ve noticed them increasing in number and ferocity for sure.”