Royan is situated on the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the Gironde estuary where the combined flows of three of France's great rivers, the Dordogne, the Lot and the Garenne flow out to the sea. The Gironde is the widest estuary in Europe and is a designated a nature reserve. With its clifftop villages, tiny ports and unspoilt marshland it is a unique, protected ecosystem - home to thousands of migrating wildfowl, majestic birds of prey plus returning eels and sturgeon travelling up river each year.
Climate map of France
Royan lies almost exactly on the 45th parallel - equidistant between the North Pole and the Equator. This temperate location is however significantly affected by the warming influence of the nearby Gulf Stream ocean current creating a micro-climate that, certainly during the summer, is on a par with the Mediterrean and with wonderfully mild Spring and Autumn seasons. Winters can however be cold as the prevailing "warm wet westerly winds in winter" aspect of the temperate maritime climate take hold.
The coastline features outcrops of limestone cliffs that punctuate the long sandy beaches - the main beach in Royan (La Grande Conche) is a sandy cove about five kilometres long. Being on the Atlantic coast (the nearest landfall looking west is 5,000 kilometres away) mean both the air and the sea are constantly refreshed.
The area has a climate where 'everything grows' from olives to Siberian Irises and as you move up the Gironde estuary you find that unique combination of soils and climate that create the wines of Bordeaux.
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