It was seaside tourism which made Royan a real town. The first bathers to launch the resort came from Bordeaux, the wine aristocracy, the upper middle class who went back up the Gironde by boat every week...
In 1826, nearly all the street were pawed. The number of stone house increased. In 1843 the civil society of bathing of Royan proposed "cold baths in waves on the beach by the sea, and warm sea water and fresh water baths inside the building." On the eve of the Second Empire, ballrooms, parties, concerts and other entertainment brought new distractions to the holidaymakers. Under the Second Empire the gas lampsburned and the candelabras illuminated the boulevards. In Pontaillac, dominated by the beach, the Gulf Hotel is a true palace. Already, the first regattas entertained the Grande Conche. Three unmissable moments punctuated the day of the perfect Royan tourist : the afternoon swim, the café des bains in the early evening and the casino later on ! Affluent people. The boulevards were widened, a golf course was opened, first 9 holes then 18... Even a flying club was opened ! From 1936, paid holidays animated the Grande Conche. But Royan remained the meeting place for all of Paris. Sacha Guitry, Emile Zola, Picasso, and many other artists made the fame of this seaside resort go way beyond our boundaries.
Seaside architecture is a completely separate architectural style which was born at the end of the XIXth century and which resulted in even more fantastic villas until the eve of the Second World War. Royan offered a remarkable range of this architecture where the extravagance and fantasy of the architects were freely expressed. Each villa is a world in itself, sometimes inspired from local characteristics, sometimes from the style of english cottages, sometimes from the size and adornments of neogothic chateaux, sometimes from the exotic styles of an oriental opera....one single basic principle for everything : to have an unlimited sightedunbeatable originality : elegant stones, seaside style and imposing neogothic mansions, temples of the idle society and the gentle lifestyle of the atlantic coast.
