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Royan
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Before World War II,
ROYAN
, at the mouth of the Gironde, was a fashionable resort for the bourgeoisie. It is still popular - though no longer exclusive - and the modern town has lost its elegance to the dreary rationalism of 1950s town planning: broad boulevards, car parks, shopping centres, planned greenery. Ironically, the occasion for this planners' romp was provided by Allied bombing, an attempt to dislodge a large contingent of German troops who had withdrawn into the area after the D-Day landings. But the
beaches
- the most elegant and fashionable of which is in the suburb of
Pontaillac
to the northwest - are beautiful: fine pale sand, meticulously harrowed and raked near town, and wild, pine-backed and pounded by the Atlantic to the north. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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France,
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