www.royan-tourisme.co.uk. A popular family resort with lovely beaches, campsites in the pine forests and a daily market in the covered halles on boulevard Aristide-Briand. The town is no beauty, rebuilt in functional concrete after the Second World War, but café-bars and restaurants are in plentiful supply, their striped awnings and plant tubs providing a dash of colour.

In addition to various summer season boat trips, regular year-round ferry services make the 20-minute crossing to Pointe de Grave on the tip of the Médoc peninsula for easy access to the Côte d’Argent resorts of Soulac, Carcans-Plage, Maubuisson and Lacaneau-Océan. At Palmyre (10 km NW via the D25), the Zoo la Palmyre is France’s second largest zoo with big cats and other exotica roaming around the Fôret de la Coubre.