Welcome to Royan!
Royan is a seaside resort in Charente-Maritime, in southwestern France.
Capital city of the «Côte de Beauté», this resort is located in the atlantic coast, at the mouth of the Gironde Estuary, the largest estuary in Europe. Royan have 18541 inhabitants and is located at the heart of an important conurbation with a population estimated at 47000 inhabitants.
Royan is one of the most famous seaside resorts of the french Atlantic coast, along with La Baule, Arcachon and Biarritz.
Royan (Occitan: Roian) is a commune and town in the southwest of France, in the department of Charente-Maritime in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Its inhabitants are known as Royannais and Royannaises. Capital of the Côte de Beauté, Royan is one of the main French Atlantic coastal resort towns and has five beaches, a marina for over 1,000 boats, and an active fishing port. As of 2013, the population of the greater urban area was 48,982. The town had 18,393 inhabitants in 2015.
Royan is located on the peninsula of Arvert, at the mouth of the Gironde estuary on its eastern shore. Royan was once of strategic importance, coveted in particular by the Visigoths and the Vikings. During the Reformation, the city became a Protestant stronghold and was besieged and destroyed by King Louis XIII of France (ruled 1610-43). During the Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830), and especially during the Second Empire (1852–1870), Royan was celebrated for its sea baths. It attracted many artists during the Roaring Twenties.
Allied bombing between September 1944 and April 1945 destroyed the town. Known then as the "martyred city", it was declared a "Laboratory of research on urbanism", and it is now a showcase of the Modernist architecture of the 1950s. It was classified as a Town of Art and History (Ville d'Art et d'Histoire) in 2010. Royan today is a tourist and cultural hub, with some 90,000 visitors each summer season.