Royan travel guide

Royan is a port city and seaside resort in Charente-Maritime, southwestern France. It's along with La Baule, Arcachon and Biarritz one of the most famous resorts on the French Atlantic coast.

Understand

View of the harbour and the modernist church Notre-Dame. (Photo: Cobber17, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Regarded as the capital city of the Côte de Beauté, Royan is at the Arvert peninsula at the mouth of the Gironde river estuary, the largest estuary in western Europe (and the largest in Europe left in its natural state). Royan has been a popular destination since the 19th century. Although the town was bombed several times during the Second World War it was quickly rebuilt in the 1950s in modernist style with tropical influences, and for this it received the status of Ville d'Art et d'Histoire (Town of Art and History) in 2010. Some notable buildings include the massive concrete Notre Dame Cathedral and shell-shaped central market. Due to its architecture it's also nicknamed France's most 1950s town, though it still has some traces from the time from before the war.

The town has around 18000 inhabitants, and is at the heart of an important conurbation with a population of almost 50000 inhabitants. That conurbation also includes the resorts of Vaux-sur-Mer, Saint-Palais-sur-Mer, Saint-Georges-de-Didonne, Meschers-sur-Gironde and La Palmyre with its famous zoo, as well as the spa town of Saujon.

Royan is about more than just the town, it features five beaches with fine sand. Royan directly faces the wine region of Médoc and is in the middle of the Cognac region so it's also a destination for wine and cognac enthusiasts. Three green "lungs" surround the town – the State forest of Coubre and the forests of Combots d’Ansoine and Suzac – these pine forests are a continuation of the Landes de Gascogne opposite the river. The coastline of Coubre is known as the "wild coast" because of its great swell and waves and is popular with surfers. The Seudre estuary to the northwest of Royan is known for its oyster farms, whereas the southeast of town is agricultural famous for melons and wine.

Climate

Royan's climate is a mix of oceanic and Mediterranean, and this can be seen in the vegetation too - you can encounter pines and oaks as well as eucalyptus and olive trees.

There are around 2250 hours of sunshine every year, comparable to Perpignan much further south. It rains relatively little, with yearly precipitation rarely exceeding 800 mm, but some years it rains considerably less (especially in summer) leading to droughts. The wind usually comes in from west with warm breezes in the summer, and stronger winds during autumn and winter. The average sea temperature ranges from around +10°C in February to around +20°C in August.

History

The region has been inhabited since the Neolithic period at least, but the town started developing during the Middle Ages. Aquitaine became part of the English realm through the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Henry II in 1154. The region profited from the trade with the British Isles (especially wine and salt was exported) and from the fee charged from ships going to and from Bordeaux known as the Royan customs. In 1242 during the Saintonge War with France, Henry III landed at Royan with his troops. He was defeated at the Battle of Taillebourg but the region remained in English hands until the end of the Hundred Years War. What was left standing of Royan became controlled by the French in 1451.

Henry III, King of England and Duke of Aquitaine, landing in Royan on 20 May 1242 (Photo: Public domain)

Under French rule, the town was quickly rebuilt. Warfare took place in the region again during the French Wars of Religion in the latter half of the 16th century. The heavily fortified Royan became dominated by Protestants, rebelled soon again against the national authorities, and in 1622 king Louis XIII personally laid siege to Royan. The town was eventually taken, the rebels were killed and Royan was again razed to the ground to prevent it becoming a bastion for rebels in the future.

This time it wasn't rebuilt but turned into a sleeping fishing settlement and would remain so for almost two centuries. After the Napoleonic Wars, beach holidays had become a thing in France, first among veterans from the Grande Armée and later among the bourgeois of Bordeaux. Royan got paved roads as early as 1816, and beaches were laid out in 1819. Much thanks to the railway, Royan turned into a full-fledged beach resort during the Second Empire (1852-70) with villas, cafés and casinos being built and numbers of tourists increasing quickly, indeed in 1895 the biggest casino in France was opened here. Royan became the resort of choice for the upper class of Paris, as well as artists and foreign heads of state. The French actor Sacha Guity, painter Pablo Picasso and Soviet refugee Leon Trotsky were some people who spent time in the town.

The Germans invaded the city in 1940 and Royan would become a German stronghold for much of the Second World War. On 5 January 1945 the RAF bombed Royan with 354 planes in two raids. In April 1945 when the area was liberated, the Americans bombed the city from the air and the sea for five days - this was the first time when napalm was used in Europe on a large scale.

After the war, with Royan reduced to ashes once more, architect Claude Ferret was assigned the task of designing a new city. Royan was rebuilt in a modern style with "tropical" influences inspired by the works of Oscar Niemeyer (the architect behind Brasilia). During the 1950s, Royan as it looks like today was built, including some large concrete monuments like the Notre-Dame church. With around 300,000 visitors from all over Europe it's again one of the most popular resorts on the French Atlantic coast. In addition, more than 4000 students, many of them from abroad, study different languages at the Centre d’étude des langues (Carel) and keep the city lively year-round.

Get in

By car

The main roads in are the N150 and the D733. The former is considerable busier, coming in from Saintes which is next to the A10 motorway between Paris and Bordeaux. D733 connects to Rochefort and La Rochelle along the coast.

By train

Gare de Royan, the stop for trains and the regional Cara'Bus buses (Photo: Cramos, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Royan is served by a couple of regional express (TER) trains from Angoulême and Niort every day, and intercity trains in the high season.

• Gare de Royan, 7 place de la Gare. The stop for trains and buses, this station is open every day with the ticket point open roughly between 9:00 and 19:00 with a break around mid-day (the opening times vary slightly every day).

By plane

In nearby Médis there's an airfield for general aviation. The closest airports with passenger services are La Rochelle-Île de Ré (70 km away, about 1 hour 15 minutes by car) and Bordeaux-Mérignac (100 km, about 1 hour 45 minutes by car).

By boat

TransGironde ferries sail across Gironde from Le Verdon-sur-Mer. The crossing takes about 20 minutes.

By bus

Local buses connect from La Rochelle, Rochefort and Saintes. The latter has train connections from for instance Bordeaux and Nantes.

By bike

The city is on the long-distance biking route EuroVelo 1 between Norway and Portugal. The route comes in from north and goes to the pier and continues by ferry across the river (see by boat above).

By foot

Long distance hiking route (grande randonnée) GR4 connects Royan with Grasse near Cannes.

Get around

By foot

Many points of interest are around the marina or a few hundred metres away from it and as such walking between them wouldn't take long.

By bus

Carabus

• operates local buses with dozens of lines going to the surrounding countryside and a couple in the city. The website has a route map.

Bus tickets (single tickets, valid for one hour from validation €1.40) can be bought in-app, on the bus, and from the vending machine on the railway station. As per the bus operator's website there are also day, 10-trip, 2-week, month and year passes with discounts for minors and seniors, some of which can be bought at sales points around town (in supermarkets and the like), some at the railway station, in-app or on the bus.

By bike

In the 21st century the city has built a biking route network and has been promoting this form of transport. So biking is also a feasible way for getting around.

By car

Getting around by car is generally hassle-free but traffic jams are certainly possible in central Royan, around the beaches and in the Pontaillac district from mid-June to mid-September when there's a lot more traffic. There's a bypass, numbered D25 taking you around central Royan.

On the market place and along adjacent streets you need to pay to park, elsewhere you can park for free. There are many large parking lots in the city, for example outside the Notre-Dame and the railway station.

See

Secular buildings

Seafront (Front de Mer). The seafront is a 600 m long built extension of the Grande-Conche beach, a transition between the city and the beach, and the liveliest part of the city during summer. This set of buildings were built in the "tropical modernist" style described in Understand above. The ground floor of the buildings forms a long shopping arcade with a variety of shops, restaurants, bars and cinemas. In the bar Le Regalty, famous French rock singer Alain Bashung (1947-2009) performed for the first time in 1963.

The port and its shops by night (Photo: Cobber17, CC BY 3.0)

• Royan Port (Port de Royan), 1 rue de la Vieille-Jetée (régie du Port)., ☏ +33 5 46 38 72 22. After being destroyed in WWII, the port was rebuilt in 1965, enlarged in 1983 and 1993, and renovated in 2008. It's one of the most important marinas between Nantes and Arcachon and has space for 1000 boats, a fishing port and is the starting point for ferries across the river. It's lined by shops, restaurants and bars making up the Les Voûtes du Port mall. On Facebook.
• Central market (Marché central). high season (mid-June to mid-Sep) daily 7:00-13:00, low season (rest of the year) Tue-Sat 7:00-13:00. The central market, in the shape of an inverted seashell, was designed by Louis Simon and André Morisseau and opened in 1957. It served as a model for the CNIT building in the La Défense district of Paris.

Lighthouses

• Cordouan lighthouse (7 km out in the ocean outside Royan), ☏ +33 5 56 09 61 78, grottesdematata@gmail.com. France's oldest lighthouse, constructed between 1584 and 1611, and the tenth-tallest traditional lighthouse in the world. It's been nicknamed the "Versailles of the sea" and the "King of lighthouses and lighthouse of kings". In 2021 it was listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site. You can get in by your own boat or by tour - see the Do section for tour operators.
• Coubre lighthouse (Phare de la Coubre), Allée de la Plage La Tremblade (20 km northwest), ☏ +33 5 46 06 26 42. The Coubre lighthouse was built in 1905 at the mouth of the Gironde estuary. At a height of 64 m, it's the highest lighthouse on the Charente coast. More than 300 steps lead up to the top, from where there are fantastic views over the Coubre pine forest, Royan with surroundings, Oléron island and the coasts of Médoc. On Facebook.

Churches

• Église Notre-Dame. Royan's Church of Our Lady was inaugurated in 1958 as the masterpiece of architect Guillaume Gillet. A "cathedral of concrete" both literally and figuratively, with a height of 36 metres it's higher than its more famous namesake in Paris. The building seats 2000 persons and is completely made of reinforced concrete and features modernist stained glass windows, including the work Assumption of the Virgin by Claude Idoux. It's organ is one of the largest in western France.

The Saint-Pierre church from the 11th century is the oldest monument in the city (Photo: Cobber17, CC BY 3.0)

• Église Saint-Pierre. The oldest building in Royan, built in the 11th century. While it has not been entirely ruined during the times the town was destroyed, it has been damaged, repaired, rebuilt and modified. First built in Romanesque style, when it was repaired after the WWII bombings it became more simplified as there was a lack of money to reconstruct the finer details. The crypt below the bell tower houses an ossuary.
• Église Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption. Another example of the "tropical" style, the church was designed by Jean Bauhain in 1952 who was inspired by the Saint-François de Pampulha in Belo Horizonte. Interesting features include the large ceramic tympanum depicting Virgin Mary and the stained glass windows by glass master L.Gouffault.
• Temple protestant. Protestant church designed by architects Marc Hébrard, René Baraton and Jean Bauhain and built between 1953 and 1957. This church too received its inspiration from Saint-François de Pampulha in Belo Horizonte. It houses an organ built by the Schwendekel factory.
• Église Notre-Dame-des-Anges (Pontaillac district). A Neo-Gothic church built in 1891, that miraculously escaped the bombings of the Second World War. The interior is in mostly "Belle-Époque" style (statues, frescoes, organ) and it has an Art Deco high altar. The stained glass in the choir represents Virgin Mary surrounded by angels.

Beaches

• Grande-Conche beach (Plage de la Grande-Conche), Boulevard Frédéric Garnier.. A 2.6 km long magnificent beach of fine sand, this is the largest and most central of Royan's beaches. It ranges from the marina to the tip of Vallières, and is shaped like a shell, hence its French name translates to the Great Shell Beach. In season beach chairs and tents in yellow, blue and white (the colours of the city) are set up along the beach, and lifeguards patrol the beach from mid-June to early September from 11:00 to 19:00. Also events take place on the beach, most notably the "Un violon sur le sable" festival and the fireworks show on August 15. free access, there's a fee to use the beach chairs.

Foncillon Beach and the Palais des Congrès (Photo: Cobber17, CC BY-SA 3.0)

• Foncillon Beach (Plage de Foncillon). Right in the heart of the city below the congress palace. In 1819, when Royan first became a resort, this beach was assigned as a beach for ladies only. Nowadays it's open to everybody, and popular with families as there are hardly any currents. Here too there are beach chairs and tents for rent. free access.
• Pontaillac Beach (Plage de Pontaillac), Esplanade de Verthamon.. Once upon a time this was the beach for the upper class who went there wearing suits and gloves. After WWII however it has become a beach among the others and can get really busy. It's also popular with surfers, and there's a surf school and surf shops nearby. The casino sits right on the beach. Tents and beach chairs for rent. free access.
• Chay Beach (Plage du Chay), Boulevard de la Côte d'Argent. A small and intimate beach with extremely fine sand set between two cliffs. The path leading to the beach from the centre has nice views over the Garonne estuary. free access.

Nature

The main greenhouse of the Jardins du Monde (Photo: Louis-Dominique 1er Spatiens, CC BY-SA 3.0)

• Parc des Jardins du Monde, 5 avenue des fleurs de la Paix, ☏ +33 5 46 38 00 99. A botanical park of 7.5 ha near the Carel university. It has an impressive collection of orchids in a huge greenhouse, perhaps even the most extensive in Europe. The exterior comprises an English, Japanese and a Tuscan garden. Other exhibits include a large 1800 year old olive tree, a "labyrinth" of rainforest vegetation, an aromatic garden and a rose garden. On Facebook. €5 for children, €8 for adults.
• Parc de l'estuaire, 47 avenue Paul Roullet, Saint-Georges-de-Didonne (5 km southeast), ☏ +33 5 46 23 77 77, grottesdematata@gmail.com. The Estuary Park is an extension of the protected Suzac Forest, and presents the fragile ecosystem of the region. There's a museum and guided parks tours. Set on a cliff, it offers amazing views of the surroundings. On Facebook.
• Grottes de Matata, 67 boulevard de la Falaise, Meschers-sur-Gironde (9 km southeast), ☏ +33 5 46 02 70 02, grottesdematata@gmail.com. The town of Meschers is famous for the Matata and Régulus caves. Dug out in cliffs next to the river, they were inhabited until the early 20th century. The Matata caves feature a museum showcasing underground life throughout the centuries, and a hotel and a crêperie. On Facebook.

Do

Festivals

• Festival Escale d'Humour (Salle Jean Gabin). February. Stand-up comedy festival going on for several weeks in February with both known and unknown talents performing. The shows seem to be just in French, though.
• Festival des sports urbains (Skate park). May. An event dedicated to skateboarding, BMX biking, inline skating, street football and similar "urban sports".
• Un violon sur le sable (Grande-Conche beach). July. One of the biggest events in town, the "violin on the sand" festival can be considered the Woodstock of classical music, big enough to be broadcasted on national television. Established in 1987, it takes place in July for three days when up to almost 100 000 visitors come to sit on the beach to enjoy classical music. Performances include a wide range of music from baroque pieces to traditional songs. On Facebook.

The 15 August fireworks show may draw up to 100 000 viewers (Photo: severin keizer, CC BY 2.0)

• 15 August fireworks (Spectacle pyrosymphonique du 15 août) (Grande-Conche beach). 15 August. On 15 August each year, the biggest fireworks show on the French Atlantic coast takes place here, likewise gathering up to 100000 viewers on the beach. Each year the show is accompanied by a different music theme.
• Fête de la Lumière (Église Notre-Dame). December. A local version of the fête des lumières in Lyon, ongoing since 2008. Light art and shows light up the streets of the town at nighttime. The main light and sound show is shown on the walls of the Notre-Dame church.

Boat tours

• Croisières La Sirène, Quai de Monastir, ☏ +33 6 81 84 47 80, contact@pharedecordouan.com. Tours to the Cordouan lighthouse, the lighthouses in the north of the Gironde estuary (Saint-Georges-de-Didonne passing Cordouan, Le Verdon and La Coubre) and discovery tours of the estuary. On

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