Royan & the Beautiful Coast.

A marketing person's vocabulary.

Somewhere around the world some marketing person must have linked the word 'Coast' with every pleasurable adjective available. The shoreline extending something less than twenty miles north of Royan claims three of them. The all-encompassing La Côte de Beauté (Beautiful Coast) includes the coves and beaches of the town itself (see our Area - 'Royan - a resort town') as well as St Georges-de-Didonne (see our Area 'St Georges and the Gironde') immediately to the south. La Grande Côte refers to a distinct and well developed section reaching up as far as la Palmyre. Whether the 'Grande' refers to to the craggy cliffs that shelter the bays and coves or to the many fashionable dwellings that look seaward from the urban development that links Royan to St Palais and beyond is not clear. The Côte Sauvage (the Wild Coast) completes the picture with the Forest of Coubre sheltering and stabilising the sand dunes that defy Biscay's notorious weather.

Does it suit the surfers?

Along this section of coast there are several points from which you can view the might of the sea. If you can face 300 steps the Coubre lighthouse is certainly the tallest and probably the best. But impressive though the rollers might be they can make bathing dangerous however fine the sand. An appropriate maxim could be that when it suits the surfers - other souls should stay away from the sea! At la Palmyre you'll find a zoo. For many the word may still carry the stigma of some urban establishments. But this is a zoological park with some 1,500 animals able to rejoice in over 30 acres of wooded parkland. It's claimed to be the best in France and with a two and a half mile trail among parrots, flamingos, lions and zebras (to name but a few) it should keep children and adults happy for a while.

Big bangs above the golf club.

The Beautiful Coast comes into its own as you leave the low and sandy lands to follow the coastal road over the cliffs towards St Palais. At first you have view points with access to the coves and the beaches; then, increasingly, the affluence of a well-heeled resort. There is a golf course nearby and you'll find villas large and small among the continuing vegetation of pine and oak trees. Among such dazzling surroundings it seems a little anachronistic that on the first Friday after Bastille Day (July 14) St Palais is the host to the International Festival of Pyrotechnic Art. In turn teams from different nations around the world come to paint the serene summer evening sky with a myriad of colours and resounding explosions that are all too likely to disturb the repose of resident elderly ladies and gentlemen.