Royan is one of the more unusual seaside towns on the French Atlantic coast. It has beaches, a marina and the holiday rhythm of the Côte de Beauté, but its real character comes from catastrophe and rebuilding: much of the town was destroyed in 1945, then rebuilt with a confident, sometimes startling, 1950s modernism.
That makes Royan more than a resort stop. Notre-Dame de Royan rises like a concrete ship above the centre, while the central market turns a morning food shop into a small architecture lesson. The seafront is softer, with broad beaches and villas along the coast path.
The big offshore prize is the Cordouan Lighthouse, a UNESCO-listed tower in the mouth of the Gironde. Boats leave from Royan in season, and the trip neatly connects the town to the estuary that has always shaped it. Royan works best if you give it both sides of a day: concrete and market in the morning, beach or lighthouse in the afternoon.