Royan is one of the main French Atlantic coastal resort towns. It is situated on the mouth of the Gironde estuary (often called a river) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gironde_estuary
It has five beaches, a marina for over 1,000 boats, and an active fishing port. It is a tourist and cultural hub and has up to 90,000 visitors each summer.
We picked a beautiful day to explore the lovely harbour and walk alongside its longest beach. La Grande Conche is a wide sandy cove that stretches south from the town for about 2 kilometres.
During the allied bombing between September 1944 and April 1945 Royan was destroyed and it was known as the “martyred city”. It was declared a “Laboratory of research on urbanism”, and now has some amazing examples of the modernist architecture of the 1950’s. We saw some of these as we walked along the boulevard Frederic Garnier which is right next to one of the famous beaches (La Grande Conche) where you can see the traditional beach tents. on our way back we decided to explore some of the back roads and side streets again seeing amazing examples of architecture.
Royan is definitely on our list of places to re-visit!
Royan’s Harbour & Architecture
About Dean
Angela and I decided that there was more to life than working hard to keep up the payments on the mortgage, to pay the gas, electric, phone bills etc. etc.
SO............
In 2008 we sold our house, I initially took a year off (Unpaid) and Angela handed in her notice!
We bought a motorhome and set off for a year of travelling!
This was the best thing we had done in our lives (Apart from getting married) and we have no regrets.
During the year I managed to secure a redundancy package which felt very strange. Almost sad as I had worked for the same company for 19 years (BT).
It was always our plan to have a whole year off before thinking about the 'W' word.
We began applying to the Camping and Caravanning Club (CCC) for the position of Holiday site assistants in August 2009. After the interview, work experience and induction we were finally given a contract at the CCC site in Inverewe (Scotland).
Our plan is to work through the summer in the UK then head to Europe to overwinter before coming back to work the following summer season.
Hopefully these few words and our blog will inspire others to get off the hamsters wheel and see that there is more to live than having a house and material things.
A cliche I know but this is not a rehearsal, life is too short!!!
Since our first contract in Scotland we have worked a winter contract in Oxford (never again!) not Oxford but a winter contract. Hereford for two years, living in a yurt for one! And Cornwall. In between our working we have also travelled a bit.
Hopefully this website will give you an insight into our alternative lifestyle.
Get out there and live the dream!
